Hello to all! I'm TehBerral, here with a TAS of a game that pissed me off somethin' fierce as a kid.
Fair warning: these explainations might get lenghty, so be prepared to pause the video to read the subtitles at certain points.
There's a lot to explain, but the gist of the game is: Jack Slater collects tons of tickets to do arbitrary things throughout the game - with no mention of Danny in sight.
Jack has two attacks: punches, which do 1 HP of damage, and roundhouse kicks, which do 2.
Mullet thugs have 6 HP.
So optimally, I have to manipulate their RNG in order to allow Jack to kick them 3 times without taking damage.
I try to run through these fires on the first frame that they disapear.
When jumping on stairs where Jack needs to immediately jump in the other direction, it's faster to turn in mid-air (4 frames) than it is to turn on the ground (7 frames).
The extra jump here is not only to pick up the ticket, it nicely sets up the mullet thug's RNG also.
This is an oddly precise jump to pick up the ticket and not fall back down to the first level.
Jumping so that Jack lands on the highest possible stair as well as picks up the ticket took a fairly awkward jump.
Some tickets are too high for Jack to grab immediately. So he does some squats until the first possible frame he can grab it.
Who's setting all of these doorway fires anyway?
Jumping so that Jack picks up the ticket and lands on the platform he does saves an extra jump.
A slight stutter is needed in order for the ticket to drop low enough to grab.
Why -in a game with a time limit no less- would they put mandatory items in a place that the player can't reach them right away - wasting precious time?
That ticket happened to be in an odd animation timing so I had to stutter to jump and pick it up smoothly.
his box fires out a tiny missile to destroy the door here.
Jack can get hurt by the missile, but by placing it close to the door Jack can run safely through on the first frame the door is destroyed.
I wish I could damage-boost to skip this guy, but knockback always pushes you towards the direction the enemy is facing, regardless of how damage is taken.
Jack also can't jump over him, sadly.
Staying over to the right here allows me to jump again and end the stage sooner.
This is as broken as it looks.
RNG hell incoming. I need to manipulate ticket drops.
The RNG is based on A) which lane you're in, B) when you're in it, and C) other objects you've spawned.
Cars also randomly drop tickets. So I made sure that I would instantly pick up 2 tickets from destroying a car.
The car accelerates at 3 ppf (pixels per frame) for one frame and then constantly moves at 2 ppf.
After collecting the necessary tickets you get a booster that allows you to move at 3 ppf all the time.
Getting the booster ASAP was enough to make the stops worth it. But regardless I had to keep my stops to a minimum.
They taunt you with a useless ticket for some reason.
Scene 4 is pretty simple. Just keep heading left.
Another "too high" ticket. This one's not too bad though.
This platform doesn't have a hit box right away. So I have to time it so Jack lands on it as soon as it stops bouncing.
I don't gain control until Jack's right under the ticket. Harshin' mah buzz there, game.
Scene 5 is THE MOST EXITCING LEVEL EVER!
I have to wait for this elevator so I might as well play around. I don't know why that's there either.
Anyway, this is the only regular stage with skippable tickets.
Thankfully, skipping them sets up these elevators so I don't need to wait for them (as long).
Last Action Hero.
Only sisies actually climb ladders. Jack Slater jumps up 'em.
"Get to the choppa!" jokes = ban.
I have no idea why, but turning away from the helicopter causes it to stay in place (for the most part).
Apparently, this is a known non-TAS trick. Suprising, huh?
Other people actually played this... huh.
This may be the inner 9 year-old in me, but it looks like the missiles are going up the helicopter's nose.
Scene 6 is another driving stage, oddly enough, easier than the first TAS-wise. Only this time we're racing a limo or something.
Enemy and object spawns are more abundant this time around. Thankfully, so are ticket spawns.
FYI, you can use destroying a car as a boost to get into a lane you want to be in.
Real quick, that's the limo we're racing, apparently.
Being over to the left not only lets me pick up this pointless heart, it also ends the stage a bit quicker.
Scene 7 introduces a new enemy that dies in one hit (even though the mullet thugs have 6HP).
I'm careful to not land on one of the stairs in order to avoid a falling animation.
This stage mostly consists of zig-zagging back and forth for tickets (what else is new). A lot of new optimizations went into this stage.
This guy's RNG was weird, so I found the fastest thing was to dodge a punch before kicking him.
It's still faster than punching him 4 times (which was my only other option).
That ticket on the far right is too high to reach, but by fighting this guy with it on screen I won't have to wait for it.
Same as Scene 1, it takes an awkward jump to land on the highest possible stair as well as get the ticket.
I had to make sure Jack jumped at a specific angle to avoid getting caught in the door while picking up all three tickets.
Last annoying ticket of the game.
I jump onto these crates in a particular manner so that the platform doesn't descend too far.
I also jump out of the stage on the first frame possible.
Second verse, same as the first.
I didn't think I could improve this fight anymore, but I found that I could attack this boss a little faster than in previous attempts.
This saved 2.1 seconds on its own.
Just FYI, this fight isn't any harder/less tedious in real time either.
LAST ACTION HERO.
The movie ends on the input for the last roundhouse kick.
And Danny was never to be seen again, I guess.