The platform-adventure genre is ideal for creating a TAS. These games combine the reaction skills of classic platforming with the route-planning creativity needed for a non-linear world. This genre is commonly known as Metroidvania because Metroid and Castlevania are the most popular series within the genre. This page is a list of current Metroidvania TASes.

Stars

Published on 11/12/2011
Cave Story (2004) is a famous freeware indie game notable for being made entirely by one person, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya.
Watch as nitsuja completely destroys this difficult game with amazingly precise movement. This playthrough saves Curly and finishes with the best ending after beating Ballos.
The program used to make this run, Hourglass, was also developed by nitsuja—with the creation of this run in mind. As such, it is our first published run of a Windows game.

Downloadable encodes and the YouTube encodes include commentary as soft subtitles.
Game:
Cave Story

Genres:
Platformer
Shooter
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
Hourglass r77

Published on 8/10/2014
Not only was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night the first installment of the Castlevania series on PSX but also the first PSX game to have a published run here.
Not satisfied with just going on a death spree to Dracula, Alucard decides to steal every single one of his father's heirlooms, while also killing his prized collection of monsters. Luckily he has the handy ability of phasing through walls whenever he needs to.
A run that beats the game through save data corruption is available here, along with one that avoids data corruption. If you prefer the main character to have muscular bare arms and to pray to the rain gods to defeat bosses, you may enjoy the Richter version. If you want to see a run on Replay mode that can skip many cutscenes, see this run. We also have a run of the Saturn version using Maria. We even have a run where Alucard avoids killing everything except Dracula.
Due to the lengthy amount of time needed to obtain the best ending in the previous run, this run was deemed significantly more entertaining, and thus obsoletes it.

Note: Due to an emulation error, the audio in the ending FMV sequence doesn't play.

Author's commentary during the run's video can be watched on YouTube

Published on 12/28/2015
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is a DS Spidey game released in 2010, featuring prominent Metroidvania and beat-em-up elements. It shares the same game engine with Web of Shadows and Daniel X.
This time around, Spidey decides to delay saving the universe by collecting a bunch of upgrades, much to the anger of Madame Web.
This run completes the game with all items collected, which includes all health and abilities. This is different from 100%, which would require obtaining all achievements.

Published on 9/8/2016
Everyone who has at least once attempted to gather a soul from each of the 120 different enemies in Aria of Sorrow, especially during a speedrun, knows the frustration it incurs after a hundredth failed attempt to get the required drop. That just makes this all-souls TAS, played on hard mode, even more impressive.
This is an improvement of 1:38.85 over the previous movie, thanks to a more optimised route and newly used items. Please read the authors' comments for more details.
If you would like to see the game beaten even faster, don't miss the any% run by one of the authors, klmz.

Note: Starting from reset was necessary to use hard mode. However, doing so is normally not allowed — refer to the rules to see the reasons.

Published on 3/20/2018
Super Metroid is a platform game and a follow-up to Metroid II. Like the previous games in the series, it is not divided into separate levels; the planet Zebes is an open world which Samus traverses back and forth. This world is divided into rooms separated with doors which must be shot to be opened. Shooting is also used to open up secret passages, some of which contain nifty bonuses, but finding most of them is required to proceed in the game.
This run not only beats the previous any% but also obsoletes the previous reverse boss order TAS due to similar routes. This is an improvement of 1:40.95 over the predecessor movie. As well as an improvement over the reverse boss order TAS by 10:40.51.
Sniq makes short work of Mother Brain and her space pirates, largely due to a major route change. Please read the author's submission notes for more information.

Every second encode link leads to a version where all graphics have been fixed.

Published on 4/2/2018
Metroid completed as fast as possible without holding back, and without concern for the game's sanity.
The8bitbeast improves the previous publication by 21.94 seconds, thanks to better optimisation and new tricks. Please read the author's comments for more details.
The run uses a game restart sequence (Up+A on the second controller) to save time in backtracking.
See Metroid Tricks for more information about the door glitch as well as other tips and tricks.
Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 11/24/2018
SteamWorld Dig 2 is a Metroidvania-styled game released in 2017 by Image & Form, where an underground mine is explored by digging and collecting resources. As opposed to its predecessor SteamWorld Dig, the levels are not procedurally generated, except for the location of resources.
This TAS by keylie finishes the game as fast as possible by skipping upgrades and manipulating the level layout.

The encodes feature commentary by the author as soft subtitles.

Published on 7/24/2019
Samus's first adventure is retold in Metroid: Zero Mission with extra storyline, extra items and on a system with a better graphics processor. This run completes the game with 100% item collection, at least as far as the end-of-game display is concerned.
This run is an improvement over Dragonfangs's previous work. It saves about 4 seconds of In-Game time, but uses a new route that removes lots of door transitions, saving about 20 seconds of real time. The previous run used VisualBoyAdvance that runs this game inaccurately fast compared to BizHawk (mGBA core) used here, which is why the movie time appears longer.

There is also an alternate YouTube stream featuring audio commentary by the author as well as members of the speedrunning community.

Watch a resync of this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 7/30/2019
Axiom Verge, released in 2015, is a 2D Metroidvania centered around the protagonist Trace, a scientist who finds himself on the world of Sudra after an experiment gone wrong, separated from Earth by a deadly void called the Breach. When Trace arrives on Sudra he finds its civilization collapsed due to the release of a deadly pathogen in the act of biological warfare. With the help of the Rusalki — giant war machines that guard this world — Trace has to uncover the truth behind the fall of Sudra, confront the perpetrator behind it, and return back to his home world across the Breach.
Axiom Verge takes heavy inspiration from early Metroid games and some other platformers of the era and employs a number of unconventional storytelling and gameplay design decisions, and is all-around well-polished. If you enjoy action platformers or exploration-driven games with a solid sci-fi plot, playing through the game before watching the TAS is highly recommended so that the latter 1/4 of it (and especially the 4th boss, Vision) become easier to comprehend.
keylie improves the previous TAS by almost 3 minutes thanks to getting the grappling hook, better optimisation, and skipping one of the bosses. He completes the game's speedrun mode (which shows an in-game timer and disables all cutscenes) in 25:09.24 by the in-game timer, picking up 15% of items.
Boss times: 02:26.52 (Xedur), 05:39.08 (Telal), 11:02.19 (Uruku), 18:20.54 (Vision), 20:23.42 (Ukhu).

Published on 8/1/2019
In accordance with standard procedure, Samus discarded all of the items she collected on previous adventures before embarking on this one.
Super Metroid has a wide variety of time-saving glitches to exploit, many of which are explained on the Super Metroid Tricks page. Be sure to check it, as well as the author's comments, for more information on the improvements. This is an improvement of 6:28.70 over the predecessor movie.
If you prefer to watch the fastest completion without getting all the items and without any large skip glitches, check out this run of Super Metroid in 35:58 by Sniq.

Every second encode link leads to a version where all graphics have been fixed.


Moons

Published on 7/31/2006
This movie is about Wonder Boy fighting against (or running past) a horde of cute monsters.
The Oasis Boots that are normally required to cross the desert were not used in this movie, because it was slightly faster to go without them.
In Japan, the game is known as Wonder Boy V: Monster World III.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

This movie has been obsoleted!
Obsoleting Movie
Published on 4/19/2007
Rather than being able to explore the world freely and sequence break to her heart's content, Samus is at the mercy of a computer's will. As a result this game is very linear with virtually no chance to collect items out of order.
The in-game completion time is 0:40 and no unnecessary items are collected (0%).
The encode without door transitions is available here on YouTube.

Published on 8/20/2007
Metroid II: Return of Samus is the second game in the Metroid series, taking place immediately after the events of the NES Metroid. Samus arrives at the planet SR388 to exterminate all metroids and eventually succeeds.
This movie by Cardboard puts the Spring Ball and Spider Ball to great use to compensate for the lack of items, and achieves victory in the shortest time possible.
This is a 69 second improvement over the author's previous movie. The in-game time is 43 minutes.
Note: This movie does not use secret worlds, also known as "the select glitch".

This movie has been obsoleted!
Obsoleting Movie
Published on 9/30/2007
Legacy of the Wizard (1987), released in Japan as "ドラゴンスレイヤーIV Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family", is actually a part of Dragon Slayer series. This is a nonlinear platforming adventure game, in which you gain control over one member of the Drasle family to explore the vast dungeon filled with mind bending puzzles and obscure secrets.
The goal of the game is to retrieve a powerful sword named Dragon Slayer, protected by four magical crowns, to kill an evil dragon trapped in the nearby labyrinth. Each member of the family has different abilities, and the portion of the labyrinth only he/she can go into to retrieve one of the crowns. However, this prerequisite was circumvented by the clever use of certain new glitches.
According to the author, this movie employs a completely different route, better luck manipulation and some new tricks that result in a 3:38 faster movie than the previous version.
Moral of this movie: Beware of short fat men, for they're surprisingly quick.
This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 11/26/2007
Jason and his magical jumping tank, "S.O.P.H.I.A.", are back, this time in glorious 16-bit graphics (and not so glorious sound). Much like its predecessor, the player must alternate between sidescrolling and overhead views to collect parts for the tank and vanquish evil.
This movie abuses death to a large degree to obliterate the game in record time.

Published on 4/5/2008
This movie completes the PAL version of Rygar with only one item, the grappling hook. It also uses a warp glitch to skip forward in the game as well as many smaller tricks.
This is an improvement of 65.58 seconds to the previous movie by Walker_Boh – this time played by Lord_Tom.
Although the route in this movie is almost exactly the same, time was saved mostly by accumulating the tone points (for Rygar's strength) a lot faster. There were other improvements as well. We recommend reading the author's comments for more details.

Note: If you are watching the FCM, don't forget to enable PAL emulation in FCEU! It's under the Config menu.

Published on 4/7/2008
Nathan Graves is a vampire hunter trying to save his master, Morris, from the clutches of Dracula. Normally this would require collecting lots of different items as well as hours of leveling, but Cardboard proves collectible cards passé by gathering almost none of the cards required for spells and blazing through the game at warp speed without regard to levels or his own safety.
This movie is a 10.5 second improvement over the author's previous movie through various small & thorough optimizations.
For those interested in the areas of the game which this run skips, make sure to check out zggzdydp's run which achieves 100% map completion.

Published on 5/17/2008
This movie is different from the other Rygar movie in that it plays all levels and doesn't use any glitch to warp from a boss battle to another.
Aside from that limitation, this movie makes full use of all the bugs and glitches in the game which can be used to speed up the run. If you are wondering what really is going on in this movie, see the Rygar Tricks page for some info about the tricks used.
This is a 4 minutes and 43.38 seconds improvement to the previous movie.
Note: If you are watching the FCM, don't forget to enable PAL emulation in FCEU! It's under the Config menu.

Published on 8/13/2008
Selected words from the author:
"After parsing through the user's manual for her Power Suit, Samus discovered that the Chozo have endowed it with the power to interact with the fabric of reality immediately surrounding the planet SR-388 by simply switching between her beam and her missiles. What luck that she should receive an assignment to go to that planet!"
This run extensively glitches the game to the point where Samus moves to rooms that are glitched and/or weren't there before. Viewers are advised that this run may induce feelings of confusion and disorientation.

Published on 7/5/2009
This is a full completion of Metroid, meaning that all items (100%) were collected.
This is a 8 minute 16 second improvement over the previous movie by Zoizite. Much of the improvement comes from using the Up+A restart sequence, though many new shortcuts and optimizations also save time.
This movie has now been console verified. Watch this run being played on a real NES console.

Published on 8/9/2009
Extra Mario Bros. is a hack of the original Super Mario Bros. It is noteworthy for being a complete "Metroidvania" game built around the original SMB engine, with very few changes to the engine itself. The five areas in the game are all interconnected (via pipes, naturally), and permanent upgrades have been added to give it a more Metroid-ish feel. (Did I mention the music from Super Metroid? Because there's music from Super Metroid.)
However, despite his newfound ability to return to levels he's visited before and acquire upgrades that don't go away when he dies, Mario still cannot scroll to the left.
This movie collects all of the keys and fights the true final boss but only collects two of the upgrades.

Note: An IPS patch for the hack can be downloaded here.
Video Downloads:
High Quality MKV
Emulator Replay:
FCEU 0.98.28

Published on 12/6/2009
Blaster Master is a fairly long game involving a random hero that jumps down a hole after his mutant frog, finds a tank, and proceeds to blow up a few bosses and rescue said frog. It's complicated.
In this movie the hero gets bored with the tank early on, skips the bosses and mostly decides to just go straight to the final boss and blow him up. The frog is saved and dissected, and Biology 101 is passed. Hooray!
This movie plays on the European version of the game, which includes a few bugs such as stopping movement by pausing and allowing double (and more) jumping. A changed zip mechanism is also in the European version which allows warping through things you really shouldn't be able to warp through.
This publication beats the previous movie by 9 seconds.
If you would like to see more of the game, we also have a warpless Blaster Master movie here that plays on the US version.

Published on 1/19/2010
Metroid completed using just one item: the morphing ball.
Uses a game restart sequence (Up+A on second controller) to save time in backtracking.
This is an improvement of 36.7 seconds over the previously published run, thanks to a new route and general optimization.

This movie features commentary by the author, which has been added to the encode in the form of soft subtitles. They can be seen when watching the embedded stream via Archive.org.

Watch a resync of this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 3/3/2010

Published on 7/28/2010
Rygar is an action game involving a hero with a shield as a weapon. Normally, the hero must obtain items, such as a grappling hook, to be able to explore the world of Garloz, and he must also defeat five bosses to gain access to the final area. However, these requirements can be circumvented with glitches. Indeed, this run kills no bosses except the final boss and does very little leveling.
In contrast to the any% run and the warpless run, which use the European version of Rygar, this movie uses the American version. The two ROM versions have some different glitches. For more details about the ROM choice, as well as some background explaining what in the world is going on here, see the movie comments as well as our Rygar tricks page.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 12/5/2010
Mega Man ZX Advent is the second game in the Mega Man ZX series. What's so different between the classic series and ZX Advent? First, you get to choose between a male (Grey) and a female (Ashe) character. Then, instead of stealing weapons from the bosses, the player steals the boss itself! Instead of switching between weapons, the player switches between forms using the Biometal Model A. Finally, the player has less freedom to pick the stages of his choice.
Noxxa picks Ashe, the female character, to minimize the cutscenes and to save time.

To play the DSM file, make sure that "Enable Advanced Bus-Level Timing" is unchecked in the "Emulation settings".

This movie has been obsoleted!
Obsoleting Movie
Published on 1/13/2011
Mega Man ZX is the first Mega Man platformer on the DS. It is also the first Mega Man game to have the choice of a male or female protagonist (the latter is used in this run). Unlike previous Mega Man series, this series features a new system where the protagonist is actually a humanoid who changes forms using different biometals (collected mostly from bosses).
Game:
Mega Man ZX

Genres:
Action
Platformer
Emulator Replay:
DeSmuME 0.9.6

Published on 7/3/2011
You take control of two Knights, Popolon and Aphrodite, out to rescue their baby Pamperse from the evil high priest Galious. They have their own subtle differences in gameplay, but for the most part, they just act as two separate health bars.
The authors, zggzdydp and scrimpeh, run through the game at breakneck pace, taking much more damage than they should be able to.

Published on 8/5/2011
Metroid Super ZeroMission is a Super Metroid hack that is heavily based on the GBA game Metroid: Zero Mission, inspiring modifications of the game engine, graphics, and maps.
In this run, the author, cpadolf, improves on Hoandjzj's canceled run by over 4 minutes by using a new route and many new tricks and glitches. For more details, as always, please read the author's notes.

This run aims to reach the ending as fast as possible and so skips most of the items. If you're looking to watch a run that clears everything in the game, watch this run.

Published on 10/13/2011
This is a really, really fast TAS through Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance played with Maxim, who is only available after the game is beaten once. Most of the game is glitched through by being stuck in different walls, so it's hard to explain what happened in this run; see it for yourself.
This is a 1 frame improvement over the previous run by gstick.
If you like this run but have a craving for more Maxim action, be sure to check out the Maxim warpless run.

Note: This movie starts where the main quest movie left off. We do not usually accept movies beginning from a save. Please read our rules to see our reasons.

Published on 11/29/2011
"You can't hit me."
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, the third game in the series for the DS, takes a different direction from its direct predecessors in that it is more of a stage-based game, similar to the earliest entries in the series, rather than the "Metroidvania"-style first established by Symphony of the Night.
This run plays as Albus, only available as a character after the player has cleared the game as Shanoa. Watch in awe as he beats down this difficult game with reality warping abilities and flaming kicks.
Note: This movie starts where a main quest TAS left off. We do not usually accept movies beginning from a save. Please read the rules to see our reasons.

Published on 3/4/2012
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (originally known as 悪魔城伝説 or Akumajō Densetsu, meaning "Legend of the Demon Castle") is the story of Trevor Belmont's battle against Dracula from the times before Simon's battle in Castlevania. In this complex and difficult game, there are three playable allies whom Trevor can recruit: Alucard (Dracula's son), Grant DaNasty (a pirate captain), and Sypha Belnades (a mystic warlord).
This game has a technically high-quality soundtrack because it uses a VRC6 sound chip that works in the Japanese Famicom but not in the NES. Thus, the movie was made with the Japanese version of the game instead of the USA version.
This movie takes the path that recruits Grant. It is about 22 seconds faster than the previous version. Improvements come from more optimization, better heart management, and new tricks like manipulating moving platforms and entering walls. There is also a Sypha path movie and an Alucard path movie.

Published on 4/3/2012
Metroid: Zero Mission is a retelling of Metroid with new plot twists and updated gameplay.
This run aims to complete the game as quickly as possible while collecting as few items as possible. This changes the gameplay, requiring more careful ammo management and new solutions to complete certain areas without powerups. Reading the author's comments is recommended.
The in-game clear time is 0:23:48. The item collection rate is 9%.

Watch a resync of this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 7/1/2012
Clash at Demonhead is a complex game to say the least. There are over 40 levels in the game, and they are all connected to each other. In the network of levels, the player must control Billy "Big Bang" Blitz to find 6 medallions and then rescue the kidnapped professor. This is no simple task. To make things even harder for a (tool-assisted) speedrunner, there are items available that greatly increase the player's speed, but in return cost money. This means that the route and strategy must be carefully planned.
This movie certainly does not lack speed or complexity, and is especially entertaining if you have played the game and know how hard it is. In this run, Randil improves the previous movie by over 4 minutes primarily thanks to a new trick that allows you to use the Power Boots for twice as long. As a result, he doesn't need to shop as much, allowing him to forgo the detour to Route 22 in order to exchange his gold for money.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.
Video Downloads:
High Quality MKV
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.1.4a

Published on 7/28/2012
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005), the first installment of Castlevania on Nintendo DS, is a direct sequel to GBA hit Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
Like its predecessor, after finishing the game, you can choose to ignore pretty-boy Soma Cruz and instead play as Julius Belmont. Unfortunately, it seems that Julius's skills have waned a bit since his last appearance. Yoko Belnades and Alucard easily pick up the slack, though.
This run avoids the use of large-skip glitches that can be seen in our other run of Julius in Dawn of Sorrow, showing off more of the game.

This movie has been obsoleted!
Obsoleting Movie
Published on 8/1/2012
After a major surgery, Samus's Power Suit has been reduced in appearance. To compensate, she decides to arm herself to the teeth with 250 missiles and more power bombs than she really needs. It's her favorite thing to do when sequence breaking isn't as feasible.
BioSpark collects all 100 capacity increasing items for Samus's health, missiles and power bombs. The abilities recovered from the Core-X are not part of this number.
Like in previous Metroid Fusion TASes, lowest in-game time is top priority, sacrificing some minor tricks that save real-time but would have made in-game time slightly higher. In-game completion time is 55:28, 48 in-game seconds faster than the previous run. The real-time improvement is 00:30.23 seconds. It appears smaller due to 1 in-game second actually being 00:01.07 real-time seconds in this game.

If you are interested, an alternate encode is available, that eliminates all of the door screen transitions and conversations, cutting viewing time quite a bit.

Published on 9/1/2012
Mega Man ZX Advent is the second game in the Mega Man ZX series. What's so different between the classic series and ZX Advent? First, you get to choose between a male (Grey) and a female (Ashe) character. Then, instead of stealing weapons from the bosses, the player steals the boss itself! Instead of switching between weapons, the player switches between forms using the Biometal Model A. Finally, the player has less freedom to pick the stages of his choice.
In this run, hellagels and red-crowned-crane collect all secret disks, life ups, BM upgrades and sub tanks, achieving a 100% completion rate.

Published on 12/12/2012
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005), the first installment of Castlevania on the Nintendo DS, is a direct sequel to GBA hit Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. In it, Soma Cruz continues to cultivate his unhealthy obsession with collecting the souls of his enemies.
Using the powers that only tool assistance can provide, every single possible soul is collected in a bit over 35 minutes. If you've ever played the game, you know what a pain those souls can be.
Very detailed information on the run is available in the author's comments.
There are also runs that complete the game as fast as possible with Soma, with Julius, and with Julius while staying in bounds.

Published on 1/18/2013
Jason's pet frog escaped and got into some radioactive material underground. Naturally, there's a tank handy and Jason's first reaction is to go after his frog.
BrotherMojo improves the previous movie by 02:43.86 using better routes and more glitches. More information in Submission notes
This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 4/30/2013
Metroid Super ZeroMission is a Super Metroid hack that is heavily based on the GBA game Metroid: Zero Mission, inspiring modifications of the game engine, graphics, and maps.
In this run, the author, Hoandjzj, clears everything in the game. If you're looking for a run that simply aims for the end, watch this run.
This movie is 07:39.64 minutes faster than its predecessor due to a version change and better strategies.

Published on 9/6/2013
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance is the second Castlevania game to appear on the Game Boy Advance. Juste Belmont and his friend Maxim are drawn to the newly resurrected Dracula's Castle in order to save their mutual friend Lydie, although it remains to be seen who will be saving whom.
This run plays through the Boss Rush mode using Simon Belmont, the original hero of Castlevania. Simon is pretty slow, but he still powers through the bosses with massive amounts of cross abuse.

Published on 9/24/2013
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005), the first installment of Castlevania on Nintendo DS, is a direct sequel to GBA hit Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
Like its predecessor, after finishing the game, you can choose to ignore pretty-boy Soma Cruz and instead play as Julius Belmont. Unfortunately, it seems that Julius's skills have waned a bit since his last appearance. Yoko Belnades and Alucard easily pick up the slack, though... or they would, but this run skips Yoko.
Unlike our other Julius run for Dawn of Sorrow which goes through more of the game, this run manages to skip most of the game by using a zipping glitch to get into the Mine of Judgement early.

Published on 12/28/2013
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, the third game in the series for the DS, takes a different direction from its direct predecessors in that it is more of a stage-based game, similar to the earliest entries in the series, rather than the "Metroidvania"-style first established by Symphony of the Night.
This run plays as Shanoa, who uses her Glyphs and copious amounts of backdashing to seal away Dracula once again.
We also have a run that beats the game with Albus here.

Published on 2/6/2014
Dawn of Sorrow (2005), the first installment of Castlevania on Nintendo DS, is a direct sequel to GBA hit Aria of Sorrow. Everyone is trying to kill our hero Soma Cruz, since in the previous game he absorbed all of Dracula's attributes. Leave it to weird cults to try and bring about the end of the world by unleashing this power.
The game is so fully broken at this point that there really is no plot in this run. Or final boss. Or much of anything at all. Using movement optimizations and a new zip, this movie completes the game 00:19.34 seconds faster than its predecessor. More details about the glitches can be found in the author's comments.

To play back the DSM file, make sure that "Enable Advanced Bus-Level Timing" and "Use dynamic recomplier" are unchecked in the "Emulation settings".

Published on 2/25/2014
Not only was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night the first installment of the Castlevania series on PSX but also the first PSX game to have a published run here. Follow Dracula's son Alucard as he glitches through the castle on a quest to end his father's life.
ForgoneMoose manages to improve the previous run by 00:21.55 seconds due to better luck manipulation and movement technique.
A run that beats the game even faster through save data corruption is available here, and a 100% run covering the whole castle can be found here. If you prefer the main character to have muscular bare arms and to pray to the rain gods to defeat bosses, you may enjoy the Richter version. If you want to see a run on Replay mode that can skip many cutscenes, see this run.

Note: Due to an emulation error, the audio in the ending FMV sequence doesn't play.

Published on 3/9/2014
Not only was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night the first installment of the Castlevania series on PSX but also the first PSX game to have a published run here. Follow Dracula's son Alucard as he glitches through the castle on a quest to end his father's life.
ForgoneMoose and sockfolder, by corrupting the save data, manage to corrupt the memory and go straight to the ending, totally skipping Richter and the whole second castle.
A 100% run covering the whole castle is also available here. If you prefer the main character to have muscular bare arms and to pray to the rain gods to defeat bosses, you may enjoy the Richter version. If you want to see a run on Replay mode that can skip many cutscenes, see this run. A run with clear save without memory corruption is also available here.

Note: Due to an emulation error, the audio in the ending FMV sequence doesn't play.

Published on 4/21/2014
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the first installment of the Castlevania series on PSX, and was also the very first PSX game to have a published TAS.
Follow Richter (playable after you beat the game once) as he glitches and speeds through the castle on a quest to defeat Dracula. If you like fast sliding, dashing, uppercutting, and using precipitation to defeat bosses, you'll love this run.
This is an improvement of 00:01.88 over the previous run. You can read the author's comments for more information.
TASVideos also has several runs using Alucard, including a Replay run, a run that aims for fastest time on a clean save, and a run that kills every boss and obtains all relics. We also have a run from the Saturn version using Maria.

Note: Due to an emulation error, the audio in the ending FMV sequence doesn't play.

Published on 8/4/2014
Not only was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night the first installment of the Castlevania series on PSX but also the first PSX game to have a published run here. Follow Dracula's son Alucard as he glitches through the castle on a quest to end his father's life.
This run beats the game at level 1 with 0 experience, and the only official (recorded in the bestiary) kill being Dracula. A few other enemies are killed using a glitch to avoid the kill being recorded or experience being awarded.

Note: Due to an emulation error, the audio in the ending FMV sequence doesn't play.

Published on 8/20/2014
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the first installment of the Castlevania series on PSX. Follow Dracula's son Alucard as he glitches through the castle on a quest to end his father's life.
This run is played on a Replay save file (not newgame+ because neither experience nor items are carried over) using the Luck Mode command. Using Replay allows the player to skip most cutscenes and alters what the librarian can sell. Using Luck Mode lowers the player's base strength which, among other changes, ironically makes the run faster by enabling a route filled with kicking enemies that wouldn't be possible otherwise.
A run that beats the game through save data corruption is available here. If you prefer the main character to have muscular bare arms and to pray to the rain gods to defeat bosses, you may enjoy the Richter version. If you want to see a run that beats every boss, see this run. We also have a run of the Saturn version using Maria. We even have a run where Alucard avoids killing everything except Dracula.

Note: Due to an emulation error, the audio in the ending FMV sequence doesn't play.

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Obsoleting Movie
Published on 9/11/2014
Shantae is an obscure Game Boy Color game released over a year after the Game Boy Advance came out. Because of this, it was released in extremely small quantities. It is notable for its impressive animation and scope.
In this run, watch as arandomgameTASer abuses booty dancing and many programming oversights to beat this game in a little over an hour.

You can read the author's commentary in the YouTube stream.

Published on 12/29/2014
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (originally known as 悪魔城伝説 or Akumajō Densetsu, meaning "Legend of the Demon Castle") is the story of Trevor Belmont's battle against Dracula from the times before Simon's battle in Castlevania. In this complex and difficult game, there are three playable allies whom Trevor can recruit: Alucard (Dracula's son), Grant DaNasty (a pirate captain), and Sypha Belnades (a mystic warlord). TASVideos has runs playing through the game with each of these characters.
Unlike those other runs, which are played on the Japanese Famicom version of the game for its superior soundtrack, this run uses the USA version. This is because the USA version has a hard-difficulty mode you can access by naming your character "AKAMA" at the start. In this difficulty, you cannot recruit any allies, and there are more enemies that generally do more damage. To make this even harder, Fortranm takes a route that visits the Sunken City as Stage 6, showing off a difficult stage that no other run of this game shows.

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Published on 6/25/2015
Normally a solar eclipse isn't a dangerous event, but for Soma Cruz being sucked through a portal and into Dracula's castle during one will turn his day into a total nightmare. As Soma you must venture through the castle and find a way out. As you do so, you will discover the true meaning behind the event, and why Dracula has risen yet again.
Those who greatly dislike that Aria of Sorrow's main character isn't related to the Belmont clan whatsoever can safely relax, because the powerhouse known as Julius Belmont enters the stage to destroy every boss faster then Soma ever could.
Julius is only available to those who have completed the main quest. While he can't do most of Soma Cruz's fancy tricks, he can get around just as quickly by glitching through walls and hopping madly around the castle, producing almost inhuman sounds with every jump.
This movie obsoletes the previous one in this category, despite having a longer time, because it uses hard mode, is more optimized and also manages to get into a Julius vs. Julius fight.

Note: This movie starts where a main quest TAS left off. We do not usually accept movies beginning from a save. Please read the rules to see our reasons.

Published on 7/25/2015
Super Pitfall is a rather poorly programmed platforming game offering many opportunities for glitch abuse. In order to beat the game (the first quest, at least), Pitfall Harry must accomplish 6 tasks:
  1. obtain the Raj Diamond
  2. find the key to Quickclaw the Lion's cage
  3. rescue Quickclaw the Lion
  4. find the flask of medicine, which can heal Rhonda
  5. rescue Rhonda
  6. return to the starting point after completing the previous 5 tasks
This is an improvement of 1 minute and 38.18 seconds over the previous movie, thanks to a lot of wall clipping.
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.2.2

Published on 9/4/2015
Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!! is a DS game developed by WayForward, based on the popular show Adventure Time. Its gameplay is heavily inspired by Zelda II.
In this run, arandomgameTASer heavily abuses many glitches in the game, in particular an item jumping glitch, to beat the game in record time. Mathematical!

Published on 12/5/2015
Ys III - Wanderers from Ys is the third installment in the Ys series, taking place three years after the events of the first two. Unlike the previous two's top-down perspective, this game is a sidescroller.
In this run, The8bitbeast beats the game in record time via the use of a glitch to give the player maxed out stats. For more information, see the submission comments.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 1.10.0

Published on 12/5/2015
Demon's Crest is the third installment of the Gargoyle's Quest series. The player controls Firebrand, who is scouring the Demon Realm for elemental Crests, which preside over different elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Time, and Heaven). When collected, these crests allow Firebrand to transform his shape at will and gain powerful new abilities and defenses.
Demon's Crest is notorious for some very difficult bosses. In this run, the author abuses boss weaknesses to the extreme by carefully switching Gargoyle forms as necessary. In addition, heavy luck manipulation was used during several encounters to make the otherwise troublesome boss fights look easier than a play through of Barney's Hide and Seek Game.
This is an improvement of 00:17.45 over Brookman's previous movie.

Published on 12/14/2015
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is a DS Spidey game released in 2010, featuring prominent Metroidvania and beat-em-up elements. It shares the same game engine with Web of Shadows and Daniel X
In this run, arandomgameTASer uses great power to blazes through with a combination of web swinging goodness and aerial attacks. It even has the Spidey humor.

Published on 3/18/2016
Demon's Crest is the third installment of the Gargoyle's Quest series. The player controls Firebrand, who is scouring the Demon Realm for elemental Crests, which preside over different elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Time, and Heaven). When collected, these crests allow Firebrand to transform his shape at will and gain powerful new abilities and defenses.
Demon's Crest is notorious for some very difficult bosses. In this run, the author abuses boss weaknesses to the extreme by carefully switching Gargoyle forms as necessary. In addition, heavy luck manipulation was used during several encounters to make the otherwise troublesome boss fights look easier than a play through of Barney's Hide and Seek Game.
This run completes the game as fast as possible with minimal item collection. For those who want to see all items and levels completed, we also have a 100% run of the game.

Published on 4/20/2016
This is a really fast TAS through Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance played as Maxim, who is only available after the game is beaten. Unlike in the glitch-warped run, the protagonist doesn't directly fight Dracula and instead defeats every boss, reaching Dracula the intended way. However, this doesn't stop Maxim from making short work of every boss and sinking into walls wherever he wants.
This TAS by gstick improves the prior run by 01:43.07 thanks to further optimizations and an entirely new route.

Note: This movie starts where the main quest movie left off. We don't usually accept movies beginning from a save, though. Please read our rules to see our reasons.

Published on 7/14/2016
Metroid: Zero Mission is a retelling of the original Metroid's story with a couple of new plot twists and updated gameplay.
This movie improves on the previous attempt by the same author by 28 in-game seconds and 34 seconds of real time. The time saved comes from more optimized movements and a few minor tricks, but mainly from a greater understanding of RNG in the game.
The in-game clear time is 0:20:59. The item collection rate is 20%.

Watch a resync of this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 11/8/2016
Here is a warpless run of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988), which introduced RPG elements and a side-scrolling view instead of the traditional Zelda overhead view. An evil magician has cast a sleep spell on Princess Zelda. Link must place 6 crystals in palaces throughout Hyrule in order to release the binding force that protects the Triforce of Courage hidden in the Great Palace.
This movie is an improvement of 00:09.32 seconds compared to the previous run. Most of the new time saved is from getting almost impossible fairy spawns at overworld traps. Please read the authors' comments for details.
This movie avoids using the extremely gamebreaking hyperspeed and scroll-lock glitches seen in the warp glitch branch. This movie also avoids all of the minorly gamebreaking wrong warps in order to significantly increase the technical skill required to create the movie; we also have a movie which does use these "glitched warps," which allows a rather different route through the game.
This movie was a part of a two-hour Zelda II TAS showcase with audio commentary by Arc, Inzult, Jackimus, Mithical9, and Feasel.

You can watch the complete run being played back on a console.

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Published on 11/10/2016
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is quite different from most of the early games in the Legend of Zelda series. It combines an overworld view with side-scrolling platform stages. In addition, the character can gain experience and levels, visit towns, and earn spells and items which are needed to proceed.
This movie is a new branch that allows warps but not the scroll-lock glitch, used in the other run we have published. A "warp" (or "wrong warp") in Zelda II is when an exit takes Link somewhere other than where that exit is supposed exit into. Read the authors' comments for details. For a "warpless" run, see here.
This movie was a part of a two-hour Zelda II TAS showcase with audio commentary by Arc, Inzult, Jackimus, Mithical9, and Feasel.

Published on 11/12/2016
Shantae is an obscure Game Boy Color game released over a year after the Game Boy Advance came out. Because of this, it was released in extremely small quantities. It is notable for its impressive animation and scope.
In this run, arandomgameTASer goes for 100% completion, which includes getting all upgrades, all magic dances and at least one of each usable item. The run also collects the Tinkerbat form which is only accessible if the game is played on a Game Boy Advance.
Additionally, this run is over 20 minutes faster then the previous run, thanks to a plethora of new glitches, tricks, and route optimizations. More information is provided in the author's comments
We also have a run that just completes the game as quickly as possible.

Downloadable encodes have the author's commentary as soft subtitles.

Published on 12/2/2016
At the end of Metroid II: Return of Samus, there is but one Metroid left in the universe. Bad things happen, and Samus Aran must once again head for Planet Zebes to battle Mother Brain, Ridley, and the Space Pirates. (And a few other bosses too.)
This movie improves on both prior low% runs (one that collects the Ice Beam and one that collects the Speed Booster) by collecting the Speed Booster and using various Shinespark-related glitches to render the Gravity Suit unnecessary, pushing the total required number of items from 14 down to 13. The author's comments are very detailed, and well worth a read if you're curious about just how everything was done.
There are a number of other routes that can be taken while still getting 13 items, but all of those routes require a specific glitch when fighting Draygon which gives you a non-infinite but arbitrarily large amount of ammunition; the item route in this movie does not permit the use of this glitch. If you would like to see this glitch, it is featured in the following (now-obsoleted) iteration of the any% run.

Published on 12/29/2016
In comparison to the usual run-through platform games, this is one of the games that requires more planning to play efficiently.
The game features an inventory and equipment and a spells system, all of which were rare to see in NES games when this game came out.
This is the 4th published version of the TAS, now 00:16.71 seconds faster than the previous version.
The author has written comments describing all the planning and tricks that went into this movie.

This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 2/14/2017
The Battle of Olympus (オリュンポスの戦い) is set in ancient Greece. A mortal man named Orpheus receives help from the gods and nymphs in his quest to save his lover Helene from Hades. People often compare this game with Zelda 2 because of its similar gameplay.
This is an improvement of 6.06 seconds over the previous movie, mainly thanks to the jump-turn technique and better olive farming. Please read the authors' comments for more details.

Published on 2/17/2017
Mikey's friends, the Goonies, have been kidnapped by the Fratellis, an Italian family of small-time crooks and counterfeiters. Mikey must rescue all six of his friends as well as a captured mermaid named Annie.
This movie improves the previous one by four minutes and fourteen seconds thanks to several new glitches, mainly the speed boost glitch and the glasses glitch, along with a new route to make use of these glitches.

Published on 3/30/2017
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (originally known as 悪魔城伝説 or Akumajō Densetsu, meaning "Legend of the Demon Castle") is the story of Trevor Belmont's battle against Dracula from the times before Simon's battle in Castlevania. In this complex and difficult game, there are three playable allies whom Trevor can recruit: Alucard (Dracula's son), Grant DaNasty (a pirate captain), and Sypha Belnades (a mystic warlord).
This game has a technically high-quality soundtrack because it uses a VRC6 sound chip that works in the Japanese Famicom but not in the NES. Thus, the movie was made with the Japanese version of the game instead of the USA version.
This movie takes the path that recruits Alucard. It improves the predecessor movie by 00:27.50 seconds. There's also a Grant path movie and a Sypha path movie.

Published on 4/2/2017
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (originally known as 悪魔城伝説 or Akumajō Densetsu, meaning "Legend of the Demon Castle") is the story of Trevor Belmont's battle against Dracula from the times before Simon's battle in Castlevania. In this complex and difficult game, there are three playable allies whom Trevor can recruit: Alucard (Dracula's son), Grant DaNasty (a pirate captain), and Sypha Belnades (a mystic warlord).
This game has a technically high-quality soundtrack because it uses a VRC6 sound chip that works in the Japanese Famicom but not in the NES. Thus, the movie was made with the Japanese version of the game instead of the USA version.
This movie takes the path that recruits Sypha. There's also a Grant path movie and an Alucard path movie.
This is an improvement of 1:18.69 over the previous movie, thanks to improved usage of Sypha's ice spell and overall better optimisation.

Published on 5/23/2017
If science fiction is to be believed, the ultimate evolution for biological beings is to discard the physical body and become an entity of pure energy. For video game characters, it seems to be the ability to zip through walls. In this latest TAS by zggzdydp, Simon Belmont joins the league of characters possessing this ability.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is the story of Simon's horrible weekend without sleep. Two years after defeating Dracula, the hero is physically weakened by Dracula's curse. He must gather Dracula's remains and incinerate them at the ruins of Castlevania in order to end the curse.
This movie is 85 seconds faster than the previous effort by the same author. We recommend to read his comments for explanations on how this improvement was achieved.

This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 6/17/2017
The second Castlevania title released on Nintendo DS after Dawn of Sorrow, this game is a direct sequel to Bloodlines on Sega Genesis. Dracula rises from the dead yet again (cue groan), and it's up to Jonathan Morris, helped out by Charlotte Aulin, a powerful mage student, to defeat him.
This run is an improvement of 14.06 seconds over the previous run by the same author and uses many of the same glitches. Yet another slightly different route selection as well as better optimisation sends Dracula back to his coffin even faster.

Published on 7/19/2017
In Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, the Belmont clan must again rise to the challenge: Dracula's castle is in disarray and is in serious need of an interior decorator! In this movie, Juste Belmont zips through walls, under floors, and over zombies with the very important task of rearranging furniture. (He also defeats Dracula and rescues his best friends along the way, but that's not very important.)
This movie is a 06:34.27 improvement over its predecessor, thanks to several new improvements and optimizations.

Published on 12/16/2017
Like many Castlevania games, Portrait of Ruin has extra alternate play modes available after completing the primary quest. In this case, you get to play as Richter Belmont and Maria Renard, using a dual character system very similar to the main quest.
mtbRc improves his previous movie by 29.15 seconds, thanks to better overall optimisation and the usage of the sliding tackle.

Published on 12/22/2017
The second Castlevania title released on Nintendo DS after Dawn of Sorrow, this game is a direct sequel to Bloodlines on Sega Genesis. Dracula rises from the dead yet again (cue groan), and it's up to Jonathan Morris, helped out by Charlotte Aulin, a powerful mage student, to defeat him.
Beating Dracula into a pile of dust in under five minutes wasn't enough for our heroes, so this time they wreck his entire castle and surrounding areas before killing him. Every boss is slain, so you get to see more of that fast "showtime" action. Significant glitching is used; read the author's comments for more information.

Published on 2/16/2018
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III - Radical Rescue is the final Turtles game released for the Game Boy. Unlike the other Game Boy Turtles games, it isn't a sidescrolling beat 'em up game, but is actually a Metroidvania by Konami released years before Symphony of the Night. Each Turtle has a unique ability that they can perform. You start as Michaelangelo, and the goal is to rescue the 3 other turtles, Splinter, and April. To do this you must fight several D-List Turtles villains like Scratch and Dirtbag before fighting the big bad (cyber) Shredder who is guarding April.

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Published on 8/18/2018
Super Metroid made waves upon its release in 1994 for having a large continuous world open for nearly completely unguided exploration and a vast assortment of movement- and power-enhancing item upgrades hidden throughout.
Having transcended the need for all of that collection and exploration, Sniq immediately goes out of bounds to manipulate stray RAM data and force the ending sequence directly—within just a couple minutes from landing on the planet. As a result, no items are ever collected.
The improvement over the previous run in this category comes from a more optimal ACE setup. See the author's submission notes for more information.

Published on 8/29/2018
Castlevania: Spectral Interlude is a Castlevania fangame for the ZX Spectrum, developed by Rewind and released in 2015. It mostly pays homage to the classic Castlevania games of the NES era, particularly Simon's Quest, but also takes on elements from later "Metroidvania"-style titles in the series.
Plot-wise, the game is set in the early 1800s, a few decades after Symphony of the Night, with the plot aiming to explain the disappearance of Richter Belmont and the Belmont clan after said game. The protagonist of the game is Richter's son, Simon Belmont (named after his ancestor of classic Castlevania fame), who with the help of sorcerer Joseph aims to remove Dracula's evil influence on the world by collecting demonic altar pieces, summoning Dracula, and whipping him to death as usual. However, some things don't go exactly as planned...
Noxxa achieves 100% completion and defeats Dracula in record time. Said 100% completion consists of the following:
  • Collect all 28 Altar Pieces
  • Defeat all 7 bosses
  • Get all 6 boss items
  • Get all 9 Health upgrades (HP maxes at 48)
  • Get all 7 Heart upgrades (hearts max at 50)
  • Get all 8 Metallic Plates
  • Apply all 8 Metallic Plate upgrades to the whip
  • Get all 6 subweapons
  • Get all other town upgrades (warp shrine, 2 map enhancements)
  • Complete the map by filling in all map tiles (visit every room)
  • Get the "true" ending (trigger Death event)
This is the first ever ZX Spectrum publication on this site.

Published on 9/29/2018
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Japanese title: Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin (ドラキュラII 呪いの封印) is the story of Simon's horrible weekend without sleep. Two years after defeating Dracula, the hero is physically weakened by Dracula's curse. He must gather Dracula's remains and incinerate them at the ruins of Castlevania in order to end the curse.
Through a death warp only present in the FDS version, Fortranm and Burb defeat Dracula in record time. Please read the authors' comments for more details.
We also have a run of the NES version (which doesn't perform the death warp) right here.

Published on 11/18/2018
The Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow main quest TAS has become even more glitched. Using an obscure out-of-room travel technique involving in-game saving and subsequent dying, klmz plows through the game with the confident pace of a cold-blooded killing machine in a little under seven minutes — a whole minute and 8.13 seconds faster than the previous movie by the same author!
We recommend reading the author's comments for more information on the death warp glitch and other time-saving techniques used to make this improvement happen.
If you would like to see more of the game, we also have a run that does not make use of major warp glitches, as well as a run that collects every soul in the game.

Published on 12/11/2018
When played normally, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is a rather long game, in which exploration, leveling up, and killing bosses in order to gain access to different items or portions of the castle is necessary. However, a bit of luck manipulation and a series of glitches involving DSS cards throw all these aspects of gameplay out of the window, allowing the player to warp directly to Dracula and kill him humiliatingly in just over 5 minutes.
This movie is a 227 frame improvement over the previous movie by klmz with some more optimizations.

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Published on 12/19/2018
Those who greatly dislike that Aria of Sorrow's main character isn't related to the Belmont clan whatsoever can safely relax, because the powerhouse known as Julius Belmont enters the stage in the relatively short run of this Castlevania installment.
Julius is only available to those who have completed the main quest. While he can't do most of Soma Cruz's fancy tricks, he can get around just as quickly by glitching through walls and hopping madly around the castle, producing almost inhuman sounds with every jump.
This is an improvement of 340 frames over the previous publication.
Note: This movie starts where a main quest TAS left off. We do not usually accept movies beginning from a save. Please read the rules to see our reasons.

Published on 4/10/2019
Iji is a freeware game released by Daniel Remar in 2008. Quoting his website, where the game can be downloaded: "Iji is an action-packed strategic platform shooter with a detailed story, large levels with multiple paths, powerful bosses and lots of secrets. There are alternate gameplay events, dialogues and scenes depending on what you do, a wealth of extras and bonus features, and seven stats to upgrade through a leveling system. Iji herself has superhuman strength and abilities, and can crack Nanotechnology, use her enemies' most devastating weapons against them, and be a pacifist or a killer - the story adapts to how you play."
This time, Matslo123 plays through the Ultimortal difficulty, which gets unlocked after clearing Expert difficulty, whilst not taking damage in the process in record time.

Published on 5/12/2019
You play as a treasure hunter named Panama Joe, whose goal is to find an ancient treasure hidden by Aztec warrior deep inside catacombs. But beware, the catacombs are a large maze inhabited by monsters. Bouncing and rolling skulls, dancing spiders, disappearing and re-appearing chains and tons of fire await you. You'll have to find many keys and unlock doors in order to reach your goal. Panama Joe can jump and climb ladders, but doesn't have much to offer in terms of combat. That's why the monsters in the game should be avoided: a collision with an enemy leads to a premature death. He will also find amulets which make him invulnerable for a short time. Except for the Master System version, they are activated directly when picked up.
nymx and DrD2k9 go through the nine levels in record time.
We also have a TAS of the Master System version, which includes more levels, amongst other changes.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.3.1

Published on 6/16/2019
Iji is a freeware game released by Daniel Remar in 2008. Quoting his website, where the game can be downloaded: "Iji is an action-packed strategic platform shooter with a detailed story, large levels with multiple paths, powerful bosses and lots of secrets. There are alternate gameplay events, dialogues and scenes depending on what you do, a wealth of extras and bonus features, and seven stats to upgrade through a leveling system. Iji herself has superhuman strength and abilities, and can crack Nanotechnology, use her enemies' most devastating weapons against them, and be a pacifist or a killer - the story adapts to how you play."
Due to a change in ending timing between this movie and the one it obsoletes, this is actually an improvement of 44.3 seconds over the previous movie, thanks to better optimisation and better health and nano management.

Published on 7/15/2019
Strider is a side-scrolling action adventure game released by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1989.
This game normally takes around half an hour to complete, but Baddap1 manages to finish it in about 3 minutes due to some wallclipping glitches.
Note: While the movie saves about 11.02 seconds from the previous movie, it still contains a number of vividly flashing scenes, so don't stare at it too closely.

Watch a resync of this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 8/4/2019
A long time ago, before human being appeared, there lived a monster named Firebrand. In this game, Firebrand (the red gargoyle) fights against the evil that has invaded his homeland. Along the way, he becomes more powerful and becomes able to fly longer, jump higher, and shoot more weapons.
Jigwally improves the previous publication by 1 minute and 55.06 seconds, mainly thanks to using death warps, but also thanks to better optimisation.
TASVideos also has movies of this game's prequel for the Game Boy and sequel for the Super NES.

Published on 8/22/2019
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is a platforming video game originally released for the Atari 2600 in 1984. The sequel to the popular Pitfall!, it opens up the world into a free-roaming adventure instead of progressing on a linear path. Among the other new features are swimming sections, save points, and catchy music.
Pitfall Harry's quest in this game is to find the Raj diamond, his niece Rhonda and his cowardly lion companion, Quickclaw.
Lobsterzelda improves the previous movie by 00:00.22 seconds, thanks to better optimization.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.3.2

Published on 8/23/2019
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is a platforming video game originally released for the Atari 2600 in 1984. The sequel to the popular Pitfall!, it opens up the world into a free-roaming adventure instead of progressing on a linear path.
This run is different from the any% TAS in that it does everything necessary to achieve the maximum score. This means avoiding falling down pits (which decreases your score by 100 each time) and following a much longer route in order to obtain all items.
Lobsterzelda improves the previous run by 00:04.57 seconds.

This movie has been obsoleted!
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Published on 6/5/2020
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the Sega Saturn is a port of the popular PSX game of the same name. This version features the console-exclusive character Maria, who easily blazes through the castle, proving that she's not just another damsel in distress. EZGames69 uses a combination of magic powers, kicks, glitches and luck manipulation to free the world, yet again, from Dracula's minions.
EZGames69 improved the previous movie by 3.56 seconds, thanks to a new OoB tech done in the Inverted Chapel as well as better optimisation.
For more glitching and monster killing, we also have Alucard's and Richter's movies, both done on the PlayStation version.

Published on 6/6/2020
Ufouria is a game that was strangely never released in the United States, even though it was released in Europe in addition to Japan (where it's known as Hebereke).
The game itself is a Metroid-style adventure: it takes place in a world that can be freely explored and several items need to be found and bosses defeated in order to gain access to some areas that initially seem inaccessible.
aiqiyou improves the previous TAS by 10.62 seconds, thanks to a new wall jumping trick as well as better optimisation. Please read the author's comments for more details.

This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

This movie has been obsoleted!
Obsoleting Movie
Published on 6/27/2020
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is the story of Trevor Belmont's battle against Dracula from the times before Simon's battle in Castlevania. In this complex and difficult game, there are three playable allies whom Trevor can recruit: Alucard (Dracula's son), Grant DaNasty (a pirate captain), and Sypha Belnades (a mystic warlord).
Unlike the other branches of Castlevania III, this run uses a stairs glitch in Block 4 to climb directly to Dracula and skip most of the game. Only the USA version allows this glitch to work, so it was used instead of the Japanese version, which has superior sound quality.
In this run, scrimpeh beats the predecessor movie by 00:52.60 seconds through new tricks and better strategies.

Published on 7/17/2020
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is quite different from most of the early games in the Legend of Zelda series. It combines an overworld view with side-scrolling platform stages. In addition, the character can gain experience and levels, visit towns, and earn spells and items which are needed to proceed.
However, the game also has a large glitch which produces massive speed when both Left and Right are pressed at the same time; due to the use of this and other glitches, most of this run features Link racing across Hyrule so fast that the screen can't keep up, and inexplicably warping between places that shouldn't be connected. Only a few items and one spell are collected, and the only enemy ever fought is the final boss. Luckily, he takes the same amount of damage no matter what level attack you have.
In this run, EZGames69 improves on the previous efforts by 0.03 seconds (2 frames), thanks to an earlier first hit in fight against Dark Link.
We also have a run that completes the six palaces without using the Left + Right glitch to turn the game into a barely comprehensible mess (but does allow the use of glitched warps) and another run that disallows both the Left + Right glitch and the use of glitched warps.

You can watch the complete run being played back on a console.

Published on 7/21/2020
The Wing of Madoola (マドゥーラの翼, Madoola no Tsubasa) is a fast-paced platform-adventure game by Sunsoft. Players take control of Lucia throughout 16 side-scrolling stages. Her goal in each stage is to locate and beat a boss enemy and collect the crystal ball in its possession. The crystal ball is needed to unlock the exit of each stage.
Arc goes through the 16 stages in record time.

Published on 10/23/2020
Gargoyle's Quest is another platform game made by Capcom, where you play as Firebrand, a gargoyle predestined to become the Red Blaze and take down King Breager.
This run beats the branch without zipping by 5:48.46 minutes.

This movie can be watched running on real console hardware here.

Published on 11/2/2020
The main quest completion time has been shortened to nearly one sixth of what it initially was, thanks to the discovery of a glitch that allows Juste to sink into walls.
This is a 02:51.65 minute improvement over the previous movie.
The author has created an elaborate encode that shows the player's position on the map, contents of the game's memory, and hacks the camera to follow the character's movement more. It is available on YouTube, NicoVideo, and Bilibili.
However, if you still think there is not enough zipping through walls, be sure to watch the second quest completed in less than half a minute!


Vault

Published on 7/6/2006
The title of this game is very appropriate, as wherever you look there are walls you can break through, or invisible blocks you can make appear.
In order to complete this game as fast as possible, every little secret must be known ahead of time, and the author clearly exhibits such knowledge.
This movie was made with the Japanese version, 迷宮組曲 (Meikyuu Kumikyoku, meaning "labyrinth composition"), but it is essentially identical to the English version, except for the shop/intro text language.
It is about two minutes faster than the previous version, mostly due to much faster boss fights and more precise maneuvers.

This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 1/25/2007
Blaster Master: Enemy Below looks, sounds, and feels like a fan-made version of the top-notch NES platformer, Blaster Master, but it is actually a bona fide legitimate sequel on the Game Boy Color put forth by Sunsoft.
In this movie the author abuses many glitches to take massive shortcuts in the game (including skipping an entire level). He also intentionally kills off the character several times in order to avoid backtracking.

Published on 10/8/2007
This is Metroid II: Return of Samus completed with all the items collected. Being truthful to the original Metroid values, the game holds many items cleverly hidden, so finding all of them is not an easy task.
That being said, Metroid II doesn't keep track of the collected items' percentage. Moreover, the game has two excessive Energy tanks and an additional copy of each beam. It's been agreed that the author should take all the E-tanks, and at least one copy of each beam. However, due to the apparent linearity of this game, collecting so many additional items doesn't make the movie dramatically slower.
This movie is nearly 6 minutes faster than Alter's previous movie due to better precision, faster Metroid fights, and missile planning.
Note: This movie does not use secret worlds, also known as "select glitch".

Published on 8/3/2010
Ghoul School is a game where a multi-talented teen named Spike O'Hara fights through a horde of various ghouls with the talent of MacGyver, needing only a towel, shoes, springs, and embalming fluid.
Normally, this game would require getting many more items, but due to heavy glitching, most of the items are skipped and the game is completed in a mere four minutes. This is a 7 second improvement over the previous run.
Warning for those with sensitivity to light flashes: it is advised to skip 4:26 to 4:34 of the video encodes.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.
Game:
Ghoul School

Genres:
Action
Video Downloads:
High Quality MKV
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.1.1-interim

Published on 11/19/2012
Zillion is a video game companion for the anime of the same name. It features a freely explorable world in the vein of the Metroid games. JJ, the main character from the anime, must infiltrate the base of the evil Noza (misspelled as Norsa in-game) Empire and find five floppy disks in order to input the self-destruct sequence into the main computer and destroy the base.
In this run, Caitsith2 manipulates enemies to fire earlier and the four-digit codes to only contain numbers above 4. He also rescues both of his captured friends in order to achieve 100% completion.

Published on 12/7/2012
Majou Densetsu II may have the same (translated) name as the MSX game Knightmare II: The Maze of Galious, but it's almost a completely different game. Though the plot is the same, the maps are totally different and there are some different items and fewer dungeons.
Hisatoki runs through the Maze, utilizing damage boosts and a glitch to fall through the floor underneath a ladder to finish in less than 19 minutes.

Note: This movie was created using a specific ROM reported by No-Intro as "Bad" and labeled by TOSEC as "Non-Alternate" (i.e. no "[a]" present). It needs this ROM to play back properly.

Published on 8/15/2014
Montezuma's Revenge was one of the first platform games, combining treasure hunting, multiple rooms and puzzle solving. The player controls Panama Joe as he explores labyrinthine 16th century Aztec temples filled with enemies, obstacles, traps and dangers. Panama Joe can jump and climb ladders, but doesn't have much to offer in terms of combat, making it imperative for him to steer clear of enemies.
This run by Calfd skips most of each temple by abusing a bug that lets Panama Joe climb through the air. Calfd plays until the eleventh stage, after which there is no new content.

Published on 5/28/2016
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is a 1989 platform game by Sega and Westone. This game is a direct sequel to Wonder Boy in Monster Land and starts in the final lair of the previous game. According to Wikipedia, it is widely considered to be one of the best games produced for the Sega Master System.
The8bitbeast shaves off over ten and a half minutes over the previous run by grinding enough Charm Stones to open the Charm Stone door that takes you straight to the final boss.

Published on 6/17/2017
The second installment of Adventure Island for SNES. Unlike most of the games in the Adventure Island series (except for the fourth NES game), this game features a large overworld and side-scrolling stages without time limits. In this game, fruit isn't important at all, but you must find items and beat bosses in a certain order to progress further in the game.
This run from zggzdydp improves upon the previous publication by 03:38.37 minutes, thanks to the use of a new route and some new strategies.
There are also runs of the first SNES Adventure Island game, and the NES Adventure Island games.

Published on 5/12/2019
You play as a treasure hunter named Panama Joe, whose goal is to find an ancient treasure hidden by Aztec warrior deep inside catacombs. But beware, the catacombs are a large maze inhabited by monsters. Bouncing and rolling skulls, dancing spiders, disappearing and re-appearing chains and tons of fire await you. You'll have to find many keys and unlock doors in order to reach your goal. Panama Joe can jump and climb ladders, but doesn't have much to offer in terms of combat. That's why the monsters in the game should be avoided: a collision with an enemy leads to a premature death. He will also find amulets which make him invulnerable for a short time. Except for the Master System version, they are activated directly when picked up.
DrD2k9, abusing a similar glitch present in the Master System version, completes the game in record time.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.3.1

Published on 5/24/2019
An army of monsters has invaded Monster World, prompting the young Shion to undertake a quest to save his land. His adventure takes him through various environments --desert, forest, and even underwater -- in order to gain the items necessary to progress.
In this run, The8bitbeast uses movement glitches and strategic pausing to skip entire sections of the game. Details are in the author's comments.
Note: One of the glitches causes music not to play on the next screen. The author has provided an encode with music restored here.
We also have a run of the Genesis version.

Published on 6/23/2019
You play as a treasure hunter named Panama Joe, whose goal is to find an ancient treasure hidden by Aztec warrior deep inside catacombs. But beware, the catacombs are a large maze inhabited by monsters. Bouncing and rolling skulls, dancing spiders, disappearing and re-appearing chains and tons of fire await you. You'll have to find many keys and unlock doors in order to reach your goal. Panama Joe can jump and climb ladders, but doesn't have much to offer in terms of combat. That's why the monsters in the game should be avoided: a collision with an enemy leads to a premature death. He will also find amulets which make him invulnerable for a short time. Except for the Master System version, they are activated directly when picked up.
Spikestuff goes through this port's three levels in record time.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.3.1

Published on 7/4/2019
You play as a treasure hunter named Panama Joe, whose goal is to find an ancient treasure hidden by Aztec warrior deep inside catacombs. But beware, the catacombs are a large maze inhabited by monsters. Bouncing and rolling skulls, dancing spiders, disappearing and re-appearing chains and tons of fire await you. You'll have to find many keys and unlock doors in order to reach your goal. Panama Joe can jump and climb ladders, but doesn't have much to offer in terms of combat. That's why the monsters in the game should be avoided: a collision with an enemy leads to a premature death. He will also find amulets which make him invulnerable for a short time. Except for the Master System version, they are activated directly when picked up.
Watch as DrD2k9 goes through this port's three levels gathering all the items in record time.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.3.1

Published on 6/25/2020
Game:
Rambo

Genres:
Action
Platformer
Emulator Replay:
Bizhawk 2.4.1


HomePages/Arc/Metroidvania last edited by Arc on 11/15/2020 3:58 AM
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