Monsters, Inc. Scream Team

cooopercrisp

Edit history:

cooopercrisp: 2013-07-29 06:13:28 pm

2013-07-08 04:52:06 am

Part of a balanced breakfast.

(Also known as Scare Island in Europe and Monster Academy in Japan.)

This was one of the first games I beat as a kid and I just found it on the PSN today, so I figured I'd take a look at speedrunning it. It's a very short game; even a casual run shouldn't take more than 3 hours. In fact, I beat it in one sitting on the PS2 because I didn't have a PSX memory card!

The goal would be 100%, meaning collecting all the Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals. The tricky part would be how to collect 100 Primordial Ooze canisters in each level (the powerup used to scare the various colored Nerves in this game).

One thing I figured out almost immediately was that Mike is definitely the faster character. His roll move is faster than running normally, and Sulley doesn't get a move like that. In fact, Mike is the better player in any respect (better attacks and a floatier jump being two of the reasons).

A problem I encountered during a casual run was the camera. It got stuck in an awkward position that made it almost impossible for me to make a jump during the Docks level. This was before I realized you can move the camera with L2 and R2, so I'll see if that helps.

I had no idea there was a PS2 version of this game until today, but it seems that was a PAL only release, so I'll be sticking to the PSX version of the game. The PS2 version looks weird anyway. Tongue

Thread title:

(Also known as Scare Island in Europe and Monster Academy in Japan.)

This was one of the first games I beat as a kid and I just found it on the PSN today, so I figured I'd take a look at speedrunning it. It's a very short game; even a casual run shouldn't take more than 3 hours. In fact, I beat it in one sitting on the PS2 because I didn't have a PSX memory card!

The goal would be 100%, meaning collecting all the Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals. The tricky part would be how to collect 100 Primordial Ooze canisters in each level (the powerup used to scare the various colored Nerves in this game).

One thing I figured out almost immediately was that Mike is definitely the faster character. His roll move is faster than running normally, and Sulley doesn't get a move like that. In fact, Mike is the better player in any respect (better attacks and a floatier jump being two of the reasons).

A problem I encountered during a casual run was the camera. It got stuck in an awkward position that made it almost impossible for me to make a jump during the Docks level. This was before I realized you can move the camera with L2 and R2, so I'll see if that helps.

I had no idea there was a PS2 version of this game until today, but it seems that was a PAL only release, so I'll be sticking to the PSX version of the game. The PS2 version looks weird anyway. :P

Softman25

2013-07-08 05:09:35 am

Wow...Even I remember this game from when I was a kid.

I don't own it or anything, but I'll be following this thread! thumbsup

cooopercrisp

2013-07-10 06:00:58 am

Part of a balanced breakfast.

A few things I noticed:

Using the first-person camera (tapping L2 and R2 at the same time) resets the camera behind the player. This is much faster than swinging the camera behind you normally and should be used wherever possible.
Shimmying across ledges is ridiculously slow. It's more risky but faster to jump across them, although I've been falling down a lot every time I've tried that.
It's best to do the four sides of the Pyramid in order.

Eventually I'm going to have to find out which final Red Nerve is closest to the level entrance, because collecting every Silver Medal kicks you out of the level you're in. If I'm correct about where the game puts you after all the Bronze Medals, I'll be going in reverse order for the others (meaning I do the Arctic levels, then the Desert, then the City). However, I could be completely wrong about that. We'll see.

Piston

2013-07-10 09:54:54 pm

Heh, amateurs...

How close have you come to gate clipping in the homeworld? I tried with both Mike and Sully in the past and came really close to clipping beyond the Desert door.

cooopercrisp

2013-07-11 02:45:46 am

Part of a balanced breakfast.

How would gate clipping even work? It's not as though the trigger for unlocking the world is inside the gate. You just have to press the Circle button to enter the level select menu. And it wouldn't even be helpful in 100% because you'd have to go into all the levels anyway.

I am curious about your idea behind it though. I would like to see if some kind of glitch can be incorporated.

cooopercrisp

2013-07-14 07:41:48 pm

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Looks like you can sequence break a few of the Desert levels as Sulley. These guys aren't speedrunners, but they found some shortcuts allowing you to get Monster Tokens without using the Speed Boost.

Here is the Oasis:

Here's the Pyramid (the shortcut is used at the beginning):

I guess Sulley will be useful in a speedrun after all. I'm really excited to use these shortcuts to avoid backtracking to these levels.

cooopercrisp

2013-07-16 02:25:24 pm

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Turns out Sulley can also jump up to the roof of the Sugar Shack using only one pile of logs instead of the intended three, so that's three levels that he's useful in.

I am also done with the routing for this game and will be attempting a run tomorrow. I will record it and post it here.

cooopercrisp

2013-07-17 06:36:17 am

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Well, I finished a run. Notable improvements include the Oasis (I kept falling out of the trees and missed the cage Nerve the first time), getting the Monster Token you're supposed to get with the speed boost in the Pyramid (that jump is HARD), the Ski Lift (I was abysmal on the slopes, definitely the worst part of the run), the Hot Springs (I die trying to get a Monster Token and that throws me completely off my route), and the last couple of medals in the Sphinx (I didn't have enough Ooze for the Red Nerves in the Sphinx so I had to quit and re-enter). With those improvements, I can easily cut this run to below 1:45, maybe even sub 1:40.

Note that SDA generally doesn't want you to skip the end cut scenes, but I didn't want to play the clip from the movie in case of copyright infringement, so I skipped that one.

Here are my splits:
http://imgur.com/2oKoEb6

And here is the run. It will be posted soon if it is not up already:

cooopercrisp

2013-07-19 06:00:24 am

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Tried another run today but didn't continue it after the Pyramid. In this run, however, there is a new trick. In Orientation, if you scare the last Nerve and then quickly roll into the mailbox next to the elevator, you can skip the gold medal animation. I pull that off successfully. Also, the Oasis was much better.

cooopercrisp

2013-07-19 06:41:14 pm

Part of a balanced breakfast.

I'm cutting out the Pyramid Monster Token shortcut. Trying to get it over and over again wastes more time than it potentially saves.

cooopercrisp

Edit history:

cooopercrisp: 2013-07-26 04:47:43 am

2013-07-26 02:53:43 am

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Ran into a very strange glitch trying to skip the gold medal cut scene in Orientation. Looks like I activated both it and the mailbox at the same time, causing this to happen. One thing I can't demonstrate is that I cannot pause the game.

EDIT: I'm switching over to the PC version of this game because it loads WAY faster than the PSX version. Still have to get used to the controls though.

ElectronAvenue

2013-07-27 12:48:15 am

SolarBowler

I present; Terrible: The Speedrun

http://www.twitch.tv/solarbowler/c/2642430

It's any% but a few things may help you, 45:xx is probably the goal, idk.

cooopercrisp

Edit history:

cooopercrisp: 2013-07-28 07:24:26 pm

2013-07-28 07:24:13 pm

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Thanks. I'll take a look tomorrow. With the fast load times on PC I think the goal for 100% might be 1:35:xx but that might be wishful thinking.

cooopercrisp

2013-08-05 07:14:07 am

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Have seen up to about halfway through the Sphinx, and I was blown away to find out the Pursuits were optional. I'll have to try that on PC. Skipping all those would definitely cut time for me.

cooopercrisp

2013-08-06 01:52:10 pm

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Saw the rest of the run. That was an interesting trick in the Iceberg to get back to the start, but my 100% route would not do that (I'd need to go into the igloo).

That Arctic Pursuit was bullshit, but what can you do?

I'm currently working on another game, but since I have this on PC and I'm taking the PC to college I can work on this one later.

Whatsoup

2013-11-29 08:01:34 pm

just terrible

Just saw your 100% run on youtube cooper, looks like a fun run. I'll see if I can find my copy of the game somewhere around my parent's house next time I visit there, this could be my new project.

cooopercrisp

2013-12-01 09:21:04 pm

Part of a balanced breakfast.

Cool. Remember that you can skip Randall's races by pausing and exiting to the island. You'll still have the power-ups. Other than that the route is solid.

mattlatimer

2014-03-03 10:36:22 am

After you get the gold medal you can fall into the water to get another gold metal and mike can fly if you keep on pressing the jump button in the air