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BladeChild: 2014-02-14 08:56:40 am
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BladeChild: 2014-02-12 11:14:34 am
BladeChild: 2014-02-12 11:06:59 am
Came across this in a 'forgotten gems' article on a gaming site I read last month. I'd never heard of it before, as a game, though I certainly remember the cartoon show. The mention of Metroidvania gameplay intrigued me, so I searched SDA and found that indeed, no one has ever really run this game, so for the past fortnight I've been taking steps to put that right, and have done some planning, and found some neat things along the way. The only outside sources I could find was someone who had done what looked like a preliminary run on YT, and the two FAQs on Gamefaqs which are either conflicting or incomplete.
Anyway, the game is kinda like a mix of Metroid and MegaMan, with a notable rope-swinging mechanic used to traverse the levels. The game is split into 7 chapters and has different routes the player can choose to get to the end. There's a variety of endings you can get with different cut scenes depending on choices made, but they all boil down to a "good ending" and a "try again ending" depending on the player's choice in chapter 6. The player can pick up weapons and upgrades along the way, as well as all important 1ups and ammo refills kits.
I'm currently doing good ending runs, and have a PB of 37:43 which can easily be improved.
From now on I guess I'll just list strats I've come up with, and maybe put my route reasoning in a spoiler tag.
- Attacking - The SNES version lets you tie weapons to Y and X and lets you use A for your rope. You can also use the same weapon on both Y and X, which makes for an overpowered combo when you get the Spread weapon, and I don't think anything beats it for DPS when you mash. The Spread weapon also has two fire methods. If you mash, the bullets will spread as you'd expect, but if you hold the buttons in, only 1 bullet a time is fired, with the same apparent damage output (as far as I can tell) This is useful for bosses you can only hit in a direct line. Before then, just the standard weapon is good enough for bosses with fast mashing.
- 1 ups and ammo kits - The game lets you start with 10 lives. This might seem trivial in speedrunning terms, to reach the end, but intentional deaths are more than likely faster in the long scheme of things, as when you die you regain full ammo energy. The amount of ammo kits found en route aren't nearly enough to beat the game, but there are some easy 1ups to pick up. Respawning is also quick. Therefore, the last boss for example; the quickest strategy would seem to be to just fall off the edge when you run out of ammo, and save your ammo kits for earlier on. There are other ammo kits that take anywhere from 10-20 seconds to obtain. Dying is simply a faster way to get your ammo bar fill.
- Invisibility - You get this ability quite early on if you choose the specific route in chapter 2 (luckily enough, that route is the fastest) and it makes certain areas much easier, at the cost for about 1/5 your ammo bar. I usually use this in areas where you are certain to be knocked back by shots.
- Lag / slowdown - At first I thought this was due to using an emulator, but it seems it's the game itself. Certain areas of the game lag quite badly, when groups of enemies converge. There's little you can do about that, but for bosses it's quite handy. If you get into certain positions and mash like crazy, you get a decent window of time that allows you to 1 cycle them.
- General movement - Running and jumping is a good idea as it allows you to pass through attacks that would otherwise knock you back and put you back into walking state. After jumping from a rope swing at a good angle, you'll automatically be in running mode, which is handy.
This is all I can think of for now. I'll add more about the run I've just done later -
Anyway, the game is kinda like a mix of Metroid and MegaMan, with a notable rope-swinging mechanic used to traverse the levels. The game is split into 7 chapters and has different routes the player can choose to get to the end. There's a variety of endings you can get with different cut scenes depending on choices made, but they all boil down to a "good ending" and a "try again ending" depending on the player's choice in chapter 6. The player can pick up weapons and upgrades along the way, as well as all important 1ups and ammo refills kits.
I'm currently doing good ending runs, and have a PB of 37:43 which can easily be improved.
From now on I guess I'll just list strats I've come up with, and maybe put my route reasoning in a spoiler tag.
- Attacking - The SNES version lets you tie weapons to Y and X and lets you use A for your rope. You can also use the same weapon on both Y and X, which makes for an overpowered combo when you get the Spread weapon, and I don't think anything beats it for DPS when you mash. The Spread weapon also has two fire methods. If you mash, the bullets will spread as you'd expect, but if you hold the buttons in, only 1 bullet a time is fired, with the same apparent damage output (as far as I can tell) This is useful for bosses you can only hit in a direct line. Before then, just the standard weapon is good enough for bosses with fast mashing.
- 1 ups and ammo kits - The game lets you start with 10 lives. This might seem trivial in speedrunning terms, to reach the end, but intentional deaths are more than likely faster in the long scheme of things, as when you die you regain full ammo energy. The amount of ammo kits found en route aren't nearly enough to beat the game, but there are some easy 1ups to pick up. Respawning is also quick. Therefore, the last boss for example; the quickest strategy would seem to be to just fall off the edge when you run out of ammo, and save your ammo kits for earlier on. There are other ammo kits that take anywhere from 10-20 seconds to obtain. Dying is simply a faster way to get your ammo bar fill.
- Invisibility - You get this ability quite early on if you choose the specific route in chapter 2 (luckily enough, that route is the fastest) and it makes certain areas much easier, at the cost for about 1/5 your ammo bar. I usually use this in areas where you are certain to be knocked back by shots.
- Lag / slowdown - At first I thought this was due to using an emulator, but it seems it's the game itself. Certain areas of the game lag quite badly, when groups of enemies converge. There's little you can do about that, but for bosses it's quite handy. If you get into certain positions and mash like crazy, you get a decent window of time that allows you to 1 cycle them.
- General movement - Running and jumping is a good idea as it allows you to pass through attacks that would otherwise knock you back and put you back into walking state. After jumping from a rope swing at a good angle, you'll automatically be in running mode, which is handy.
This is all I can think of for now. I'll add more about the run I've just done later -
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