I have been speedrunning this masterpiece of a game since the beginning of time. With this, I've gained endless experience and knowledge. This guide has been made to teach all of you, so you too can be a master of Elmo's 123s. For reference, I will be using loveroms.com's control scheme of Elmo's 123s (Z as A, arrow keys as dpad, enter as start).
1st Minigame: Count The first minigame of Elmo's 123s requires you to count the amount of stars a spaceship puts in front of you. No matter what, the first two numbers will always be 2 followed by 9. The next three have varied, with the numbers potentially being 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Keep in mind that holding the arrow keys left or right will move the cursor faster than tapping them. Once you've restored all 5 buildings and finished the level, the spaceship will fly offscreen and the words "Very Good" will appear a few seconds later. Be sure to save time by pressing Enter twice when these words appear to return to the menu screen.
In Between Minigames When choosing minigames, you do not have to wait for Elmo to go up to the next step. You only need to input the direction, then press Z almost immediately afterwords.
2nd Minigame: Choose This is by far the most RNG-based game in Elmo's 123s, ruining many WR pace runs. A number is shown on the bottom right, and you have to choose one of the three choices of stars that matches this number. Unfortunately for the runner, only one choice is shown at a time, making this a guessing game. To add to this, a wrong guess will have Elmo shake his head for a couple seconds, which ruins the run. What I've found is that answers are either on the right or on the center most of the time, so the safest way to play this game is to check the center and right first for answers. You can still move Elmo's flashlight quickly to the left if you are wrong and be on WR pace (this happened on my WR run). When you've answered 3 questions, the "Very Good" screen will appear, allowing you to return to the home screen with Enter (press it just once this time).
3rd and 4th Minigames: Plus and Minus These are the two easiest minigames (unless you don't know how to add and subtract), as you have a lot of time between when the problem is displayed and when you get to choose your answer. There are no "Very Good" slides at the end of these stages, so you have to wait for the rockets to launch before the game takes you back to the main menu.
After you have returned to the menu following the fourth game, your run is over. I hope that this guide helped you in your journey in Elmo's 123s, and may the gods of Sesame Street help you along the way.
