Västerbotten, SwedenThanks for the feedback!
Wow, I didn't know the in-game time was that inaccurate. Did your 45:43 run have an almost 3 hour in-game time, Inviso? Haha that's wild.
In-game time is usually not what speedruns go by today since they're usually coded to be frozen during pause menus or cutscenes. But if it was more accurate, we could add it as an extra row where we view the runs for sure. I appreciate the suggestion!
I discussed this with OldSchoolRich and we agreed that there should be a split between Famicom and Xbox/Switch versions, to make it more fair for those running Famicom or wants to run it on Famicom because you have to run through the intro. Let us know what you think of that. :)
I also went ahead and added another THE33ZONES category, just because on the Famicom there is no boss.
Sorry for the inactivity here. :) Yes, seeing how similar the versions are (Famicom is ver 2.00, Switch/Xbox is 2.11) they would both go into the same category. Compared to original NES version 1.0/1.1 version.
And with that the category has now been renamed for better clarity!
...Actually, with the Xbox/Switch versions, you can choose to start the game in "Arcade mode", which skips the intro of the game where you run around inside the base. Just start the timer when you hit 'Start' in the menu, like Inviso does.
Seeing how there were no runs previously, I think it makes sense to just leave it as is. Have a separate category with Famicom version because you can't skip the intro is probably not necessary. That, and separating Story and Arcade mode in Xbox/Switch versions. Let me know if you disagree!
I believe that the special stage THE33ZONES now also has a boss which the Famicom version didn't have, but because once again there were no runs submitted for that it's all good!
I want to start out by correcting myself: the game has FOUR difficulties, not three. I'm off to a good start. :D
You're correct about that sYn, that's definitely something to consider about Pro mode. But there is also something unique about Easy mode, which is that you start with a Holy Cup after every continue and at the start of the game. Which definitely makes a difference, for example on the lava path before the first boss if you're going for the death route rather than picking up Life Orbs to be able to survive the lava path.
The reason I mentioned the difficulties to begin with is because me and Jafem made an item map a couple years ago. Just when we were done with it, I noticed there were inconsistencies with the save states I had made for the game, and the maps we created. Like for example, places where there are Life Orbs or Soul Orbs I got either Telesma or Red Medicine on my save states instead. This is because the maps were made in Easy mode, while my save states are in Normal mode.
Either way, I want to do more research and figure out if the chests only differ between Easy and Normal, or if it's even less chests for Hard and Pro. I'll upload them here to be uploaded for sr.com as soon as I figure out the difficulty changes.
Oh yeah, you're right. I also think it's weird because usually "all stages" usually implies you can skip stages otherwise, which ain't the case as far as I know.
The dashing in TMNTIV is a bit finicky and there's a lot to get used to. Being close to enemies doesn't affect the dashing but you're probably moving around a lot when they are close.
When you tap forward, whether it's a really fast tap or you actually move a little bit, on the moment of input the game waits for about 1-1.5 sec to see if you follow it up with another forward input in order to execute a dash.
This means that if you walk forward a bit and then double-tap within that 1-1.5 sec you will most likely cancel out the dash with one input too many, which results in giving a regular walk. If you walk a tiny bit and then try to run you want to just tap forward once.
This also creates some inconsistencies as far as dashing moves are concerned. If you do F > F > SP for a dash special, the dash special animation is so long that you lose the dashing state when the attack is over, which means you will need to do F > F > SP again in order to do another dash special. But with slides and tackles you will only need one forward input after doing the first one because those are fast and you're still in dashing state after them. So for example first slide would be F > F > JMP > ATK, and then you do, F > JMP > ATK, F > JMP > ATK, etc. Dashing and then turning around to dash is a pain too as you gotta triple tap for some reason.
As already stated by matthewreality, luckily you can cancel this small period by moving up or down, or by doing a regular attack. So if you want to make sure you get the dash just do any of those. If you are close to enemies an attack is recommended for the short stun.
I'd recommend just dashing along the edge of the screen for a while while there are no enemies around to get a hang for it. As your strats become more solid and less improvised the dashing mechanics will feel way better.
It is because after you put out the two final bombs you need to tap right again when you land on the ground otherwise the last bomb won't push you the way you want.
If you're just starting out with SM I'd recommend going for old route with Kraid, Phantoon, Draygon, Ridley order. Less tricks to struggle at and easier to survive. New route is faster by about 2 minutes or so but you could always switch after pushing down your old route time first.
So I dunno when and why but the theme of the game became weird, whenever I would load the Secret Ties page it would just be white background. Even though I changed it to dark grey several times it kept being white. I figured the only way to fix that was to choose a background. I took the regular speedrun.com background and then I thought since the logo of the game is turqoise I might wanna add a turqoise tint to it? Then I remember I already refined the game logo so I added that too. After I added the background in, it didn't match very well with the grey panels, so I added the turqoise tint there too. It is about the same brightness on everything, but slightly darker (since turqoise is such a bright color).
Let me know what you think. We could just go back to standard sr.com background.
There is a Discord server for this game now! Suggest strats, get help for tricks or just have fun with memes! https://discord.gg/n9bF7cW
Oh, I didn't know that was a thing? I thought people always added stuff to "any%". Like with Zelda, "Any% no U+A", or like with Zelda LTTP or Super Metroid's "Any% NMG", etc. I feel like if you leave out any%, people don't know if it would be 100% or low%.
Sure, this game only has any% yet, but that isn't obvious to people who hasn't seen the run before, I think. I wouldn't be opposed to changing the name of the category, though.
That works for me. Thanks for being cool.
I want to get back to this game soon-ish, and when I do I definitely wanna try the new death warps. When I do that I will definitely learn more about the JP version and if there's any more differences.
So I have been thinking about this a little bit, and I don't know if separating the game by region is the way to go. If the different regions would impact game speed or game mechanics or text or anything that made the runs different by just running the game we do now, it would definitely be the best way. But as far as we know, the death warps is the only real difference. Let's say I have a Famicom and the SF2010 cart, and I want to get serious with the game with no intention of going for the death warps (either because it skips too much, or because it's too hard). It would be impossible for me to even get close to top times within the JP leaderboard. We would force Famicom players to get a US NES, get a flash cart or play on emulator just so they could be competitive with the way they want to play the game.
You were talking about preserving the way the game was being played before a certain trick or glitch was found, and I agree. But separating by region won't do that. There is some runs on the leaderboard already that are on JP version; we would move them over to the other region without any difference in how the run is being played. However, separating it by either Any% vs Any% no WW, or Any% vs Any% Glitchless will do just that.
That would be my reasons, anyway. Let me know what you think.
Great stuff, HouJi! After doing some testing I can confirm that this glitch only works for the JP version. I never tested the PAL version, but I would assume it's based on the US version anyway.
Yes, CLChambers - triggering the glitch there in that pit in the final stage brings you right to the ending. Actually, all the places where the glitch were demonstrated in the video is everywhere you'd be able to do it in runs, except for the plant level where you gotta kill frogs and the first auto-scroller on the final planet.
So, moving on from here... should we keep Any% the same and it's up to runners if they wanna include the glitch, or should we move over all Any% runs to "Any% no WW" by default? (WW as in wrong warp, i.e a warp done by a glitch if there's someone who doesn't know), and then if someone uploads runs which has the warps, a new Any% leaderboard could get made?
I haven't seen anyone run the game with the glitch, so no rules have been "established", but seeing as how huge of a glitch it is it would no doubt be it's separate thing. It was only in the first version of the game so you'd need to have that type of cart or find the right rom to play on emu/flash cart.
If there's runs out there with invincible glitch I wouldn't be against creating a leaderboard for it, personally. I'd be interested in what others has to say. Just don't expect much competition for that type of run.
Thanks for the compliment, and for understanding. :)
Unfortunately, no one has made any practice rom for TMNT4. If you want you can get the USB2SNES add-on for SD2SNES if you want, that lets you patch the game while you're playing with a function to use save states. It can't remember more than the save states of one game so unfortunately you can't have different practice roms with it. At least it's faster than Game Saver!
