I saw Beardstrength's record on my homepage about 4 days ago and was curious what this game would look like pushed to the absolute limit, but there wasn't an existing TAS, so I made one. The time I ended up with is 3:27.467 (according to yt-frame-timer).

Almost certainly not a perfect run but very fast. There are many coin jumps and some precise damage boosts that won't be possible RTA, but a few strats here might be viable:

• Going left at the start of 2-2 and doing the level backwards was a bit faster, not sure if it would translate to RTA though.

• The double spike bounce in 4-3 looks doable. *

• The spike bounce over the wall in 9-1 seems free. *

My favorite levels to watch: 7-5 (ridiculous coin jump into a silly damage boost that barely saves frames), 5-0 (love the really long damage boost), 3-1 (extremely precise getting the coin jump AND the boost), 7-1 (several 1-frame coin jumps while damage boosting to fly through the level).

*Never mind, see my comment below.

Yooo that was a pleasure to watch! Will Beardstrength come back for the sub-4 now?!?!?

Scratch that about the spike bounces, I only just now noticed they're literally frame-perfect. I suppose it's new tech if you're dedicated: if you jump on the frame before you bounce off spikes, you can do a super jump.

That was very entertaining. Well done. Some of those damage boosts being maintained are bonkers. I knew that the speed increase can be maintained indefinitely (provided you don't stop) but doing so while also navigating a level is virtually impossible for a human. I love it.

Those fancy spike jumps are indeed frame perfect. I've only managed to execute them a handful of times. They might be a viable YOLO strat to try to recover a dead run but I certainly wouldn't recommend trying them on PB pace—the time loss is enormous of you don't make it.

Going left at the start of 2-2 and doing the level backwards was a bit faster, not sure if it would translate to RTA though.

I experimented with that a few weeks ago and I wasn't able to reliably execute that strat fast enough to save time. The enemies kept getting in my way (particularly the Frankenstein's monster head).

Did some testing to check the RTA viability of getting the damage boost in 5-0 because it honestly looked feasible. This was literally my first time playing the game normally and I messed up a lot just from not being used to the controls. After 90 seconds of fumbling, I got it 3 times in the last 90 seconds (first completion is at 1:24).

How To Do It

Assuming you're holding right the whole time: you jump while getting the coin (roughly a 7-frame window but it's honestly free), then you have 4-6 frames (the later you jumped, the more frames) to jump while inside the platform so the enemy doesn't send you straight down. You want to do a tiny jump so you can land in time to jump onto the next platform and get the coin on the left side of the screen. Then just make sure you also jump quickly onto the top platform for those coins. You can see my inputs in the video if it helps.

It's obviously risky and tight but if I can do it, someone actually good at the game can probably get it consistently. In individual level runs, you could probably get close to the TAS since it mostly comes down to getting down the platforms on the right side as fast as possible.