Bionicle: Tales of the Tohunga - September 29, 2015

Edit history:

SDAVerification: 2015-09-29 02:08:52 pm

2015-09-15 10:27:13 am

Game Page: Doesn't exist yet

Bionicle: Tales of the Tohunga () (gba) [Any %] [Single Segment]

Decision: Reject

Reason: The run lacks optimization.

https://queue.speeddemosarchive.com/verificationfiles/1740/

This run will be available for a month. After that these link(s) will no longer work.

Thread title:

SDAVerification

2015-09-15 10:27:14 am

Run Information

Bionicle: Tales of the Tohunga () (gba) [Any %] [Single Segment]

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/bionicle-v_HQ.mp4

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). This is not a contest where the majority wins - I will judge each verification on its content. Please keep your verification brief unless you have a good reason otherwise.

LotBlind

2015-09-21 12:11:04 pm

AV: good

15:00 I think this is the moment when any weak accepts turned into a weak reject. Just too many mistakes overall with more left to come. If I had more energy I'd be more detailed but you can see where you lost time and if you keep practising around those areas you can surely come up with a more clean run.

reject

ktwo

2015-09-23 09:28:13 am

I agree with LotBlind. It looks like the runner has the general know-how, but this run is, simply speaking, not polished enough. There are a few too many instances of menu navigation errors, getting slightly lost and several spots where it looks like a lack of planning (which gaps to jump and from exactly where and so on). Those things should be pretty simple to correct. Whatever it was that happened around the 15 min mark looked like a pretty big time loss. It's possible that it was the game playing a trick on the runner, but that should have been a reset imo (at least if your aim is to push the time as low as you can). I'm positive the runner can improve on this run.

Reject

TheMG2

Edit history:

TheMG2: 2015-09-23 03:10:20 pm

2015-09-23 02:39:34 pm

I didn't realize this game was the bionicle game for GBA I had actually played when I saw the thread, instead of the one released in 2002, which was Matoran Adventures. I had forgotten how early Tohunga were renamed to Matoran due to the lawsuit involving the Maori. I never really even saw the title of this game aside from online because the cart is only labeled with LEGO BIONICLE and I never had the box (though the box seems to be the same as well).

Looking at the thread in newer consoles, I see runs that did not have the problem at 15:00. That is because the runner must have either miscounted or forgot the number of boulders you need to have the bird drop before it's safe to get picked up by it. He had actually given the bird all 5 boulders that were needed, and then tried to give it a sixth but by that point the rock pile ran out. I remember that the rock piles stop giving you boulders after a certain point, but it doesn't give any indication of this other then that you cannot pickup any more rocks. I'm not sure if that's a bug or what. Regardless he then looked around for another rock that was completely unnecessary. That was easily avoidable.

The collision in this game is not exactly the best, so it is easy to get caught on things that you don't want to. Sometimes it's possible to get stuck inside something entirely and you have to bonk off it to get out. I feel however, that the above verifiers are right in that you really should plan the run more. Menuing you really need to memorize more, and I feel enemy placements you should try planning better around as well.

I'm curious if you could implement the fact that you can also drag things to you with the cannon thing in addition to using it to fling yourself to things. This works on enemies and you can drag certain enemies into the abyss. However, this one electric enemy in Le-Wahi(?)(Koro? I'm not sure what it would be considered) crashes the game upon being dragged off a cliff, so maybe not too much.

Also ugh that last section after getting the last toa stone and after shattering the crystal and you have to use the lava board. That enemy is a pain to attach to, there are no real visual cues. It'd probably be best to count from when the previous enemy disappears and use that to time your shot. I read the last section is completely RNG, so failing that makes sense, you don't have much time to react to obstacles, but I feel with the cannon section you could come up with a plan.

On the bright side though, you made me interested in runs of this game so grats on that. The Ko-Koro skip is pretty cool and you were pretty good with long jumping for speed for the most part, which is pretty good considering you're committed to a direction and distance once you start it. I also really liked the manipulation of the toad in Ga-Wahi to avoid the need to throw a boulder at it to stun it, but still grab Nokama and escape without getting caught by it.

I think you really should look to improve this, I'd be curious to see what you could do with it.

Reject

EDIT: Apparently this game was called "BIONICLE: Quest of the Toa" after the lawsuit as well so if a submission is ever received for that, know it's the same game.

I didn't realize this game was the bionicle game for GBA I had actually played when I saw the thread, instead of the one released in 2002, which was Matoran Adventures. I had forgotten how early Tohunga were renamed to Matoran due to the lawsuit involving the Maori. I never really even saw the title of this game aside from online because the cart is only labeled with LEGO BIONICLE and I never had the box (though the box seems to be the same as well).

Looking at the thread in newer consoles, I see runs that did not have the problem at 15:00. That is because the runner must have either miscounted or forgot the number of boulders you need to have the bird drop before it's safe to get picked up by it. He had actually given the bird all 5 boulders that were needed, and then tried to give it a sixth but by that point the rock pile ran out. I remember that the rock piles stop giving you boulders after a certain point, but it doesn't give any indication of this other then that you cannot pickup any more rocks. I'm not sure if that's a bug or what. Regardless he then looked around for another rock that was completely unnecessary. That was easily avoidable.

The collision in this game is not exactly the best, so it is easy to get caught on things that you don't want to. Sometimes it's possible to get stuck inside something entirely and you have to bonk off it to get out. I feel however, that the above verifiers are right in that you really should plan the run more. Menuing you really need to memorize more, and I feel enemy placements you should try planning better around as well.

I'm curious if you could implement the fact that you can also drag things to you with the cannon thing in addition to using it to fling yourself to things. This works on enemies and you can drag certain enemies into the abyss. However, this one electric enemy in Le-Wahi(?)(Koro? I'm not sure what it would be considered) crashes the game upon being dragged off a cliff, so maybe not too much.

Also ugh that last section after getting the last toa stone and after shattering the crystal and you have to use the lava board. That enemy is a pain to attach to, there are no real visual cues. It'd probably be best to count from when the previous enemy disappears and use that to time your shot. I read the last section is completely RNG, so failing that makes sense, you don't have much time to react to obstacles, but I feel with the cannon section you could come up with a plan.

On the bright side though, you made me interested in runs of this game so grats on that. The Ko-Koro skip is pretty cool and you were pretty good with long jumping for speed for the most part, which is pretty good considering you're committed to a direction and distance once you start it. I also really liked the manipulation of the toad in Ga-Wahi to avoid the need to throw a boulder at it to stun it, but still grab Nokama and escape without getting caught by it.

I think you really should look to improve this, I'd be curious to see what you could do with it.

Reject

EDIT: Apparently this game was called "BIONICLE: Quest of the Toa" after the lawsuit as well so if a submission is ever received for that, know it's the same game.

Vibex

2015-09-23 08:54:26 pm

Thanks for the feedback guys, I can with out a doubt save time on this run. The only reason I really submitted it was because no one else runs the game and I want more people to.

LotBlind

2015-09-24 09:21:34 am

Aww...

That's the sad reality for a lot of games. There's just so many of them! :/

SDAVerification

2015-09-29 02:08:55 pm

Decision posted.