Jelly Boy is a platforming game with several items to transform Jelly Boy, giving him special abilities and/or attacks.
Physics
Acceleration cycle (angry face)
Routing Restrictions
There are 6 worlds:
- Toy Land;
- Ice Zone;
- Aztec Adventure;
- Space World;
- Desert Zone;
- Sky World.
Every world has 8 levels, each with a hidden puzzle piece. Once the 8 puzzle pieces have been collected, the boss for the world is unlocked. Notably, the levels need not be completed once their puzzle piece has been collected, so death may be used to save time when they do not need to be completed to progress on the world map. This usually saves much more time than gaining the necessary lives, either through 1-ups or collecting 100 cherries or 100 music notes in a level.
Each world also has a hidden key, which is used to unlock another world once the boss has been defeated. Other than starting in Toy Land, there is no restriction on the order of the worlds, and the key in the final world unlocked may be skipped.
General Tricks
Asymmetric hitboxes
Many of Jelly Boy's transformations have different hitboxes when they are facing left to when they are facing right. This can be used in a few different ways:
- Dodging attacks;
- Landing on platforms that are slightly further away.
In particular, the second of these can be used to land inside segmented walls, and then perform a "walljump" glitch as in many other platforming games of a similar age. This only works with some combinations of transformation, direction and wall type.
Floor clip preservation
When landing, Jelly Boy will often clip a few pixels into the floor, before being snapped to the correct height a frame later. Triggering a transformation (e.g. by picking up an item or pressing X to return to the normal form) on the right frame stops the snapping from happening, keeping Jelly Boy clipped into the floor. This has a couple of issues:
- Many floors push Jelly Boy in unhelpful directions if you are clipped into them;
- At the end of the transformation, Jelly Boy gets pushed upwards.
It is not known how to do anything about the first of these. For the second, it can be interrupted by performing an action (e.g. attacking with Y, ducking with A, or in rare cases the B action), keeping you permanently inside the floor until you jump. Getting hit by an enemy in this state will push you downwards through the floor you are in.
Ceiling clips
The upwards push at the end of a transformation can be used to get a small way into some types of ceiling. There is nowhere known where this gives you enough height to land inside the ceiling, unless you can gain more height by walljumping off something nearby (see a failed strat for Kessle).
Textbox skips
Pausing the frame that a textbox is activated prevents the text from displaying, allowing it to be skipped much earlier.
Additionally, if a textbox is activated on the same frame that a puzzle piece is collected, then the puzzle piece textbox takes priority and the original textbox will be skipped entirely. This is used to skip tutorial textboxes in Marble Alley, Drum Solo and Barmy Army in Toy Land.
Neutral landings
When in Jelly Boy's normal form, landing while not holding a direction makes Jelly Boy act as if he is on the landing floor until his speed has decreased to 0 or a direction is pressed. During this time, you will move horizontally, and may jump as if you are stood on the floor. This can be used to jump over larger gaps than you would be able to otherwise.
Other forms have neutral landings with other effects; details can be found on the transformation page. In particular, the skateboard may go up to 30 frames without slowing down, which can be used in Marble Alley to skip a textbox while still collecting enough cherries for an extra life.
Last frame carryover
Some of Jelly Boy's state is carried over from the last frame of a level into the first frame of the next one. The only known property that is carried over is whether or not Jelly Boy was on the ground, allowing a jump on the first frame of the level even if you are starting in midair.
Sitting duck
Holding the duck button (A) while falling off a ledge keeps some of the properties of the ducking state. The only known property that is preserved is the ability to float on water. This allows many large sections of water to be crossed without picking up slow transformations, and to take advantage of water currents.
Slope attack acceleration
During an attack on a slope, the game mistakenly increases Jelly Boy's maximum speed limit each frame, resetting when the attack ends. If the attack lasts long enough, this allows Jelly Boy to accelerate to speeds faster than would normally be possible.
This is particularly effective with the flamethrower transformation, as its attack may last arbitrarily long, as was used in a (now obsolete) strategy for Brass Monkeys. With Jelly Boy's normal form, the attack does not last long enough for this to save time, with the exception of the attack hitting an object. In this case, the attack is extended by a frame, and (if the acceleration cycle is on the correct frame) save 7 pixels.
Item box direction manipulation
The item from an item box is given speed in the direction the player is facing the frame before it spawns. This is delayed a few frames from the attack hitting the item box, allowing the player to choose the direction by turning around on the correct frame.
Reference videos
Some videos that I have used for referencing level layout etc.:
Some videos demonstrating a memory corruption bug: