[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy - Flipswitch in 36.35
This is a very satisfying level for me 😀 It shows off a lot of optimization and it felt good to get back to a "real" level (after TASing with motion controls).
Any% TAS WIP by Xander
Playlist of ILs I've completed so far: https://goo.gl/5ffyFL
Alllllright so, we start off the level with a frame perfect landing cancel. As long as I'm holding forward-ish, the earliest I can long jump will be the same. This lets me drift slightly to the side without losing time.
At the start of the first long jump, I hold neutral for as long as I can so that I'm as close to the edge as possible after I turn. Then, I jump as early as possible that allows me to sort of swing around the corner. This is faster than the jump that Hime does on the top corner which is faster than just walking.
The right side is pretty simple - long jump as early as possible, turn as early as possible, long jump again as early as possible with an angle that just barely lets me hit the upper switch that I aim for.
On my way to the bottom row, I do a jump (similar to what Hime did at the top right). This saves 1 frame over just running. I turn to walk along the bottom row as soon as I can that still allows me to fully turn upwards shortly after.
This is where the strategies begin to split. In my first attempt (https://youtu.be/4UyimyzD0lo), I long jump up which put me about half way up the switch. This was the optimal place to do another jump around the corner which in turn put me about half way through the panel I landed on. And from half way through that switch, it's fastest to triple jump up to the star. However, this strategy turned out to be slower than what I do here.
Coming up from the bottom left corner, I double jump off the spike platform which gives Mario a huge forwards boost. This actually gives him enough momentum to fling around the corner, but I need to hold back so that when I land I have enough time to hit both switches.
Thankfully I found that holding neutral just before landing allowed Mario to slide over to the center switch and hit it - this is what made this strategy possible since, in my previous attempt, it took me 5 frames to move over and hit that switch while still moving forward and I didn't have that much time here since I land further up from the double jump.
Now, from this position it's far too late to jump around the corner, so what I do is crouch under the laser! If I was any slower, the ball of the laser would've hit me since it has a bigger hitbox. And next, from the edge of the corner it's fastest to do a long jump into an instant backflip (IBF). Overall this was 15 frames faster than the long jump to triple jump strat.
I'm really happy that I got to use this cool and unique strat 😀
A note about cycles: I wasn't worried about them at all because I could essentially control them with P2. It would've been a hassle to change them but they wouldn't slow me down like they did Hime. I'm actually glad I didn't have to change them with P2 because this level almost becomes a 1P level (besides the 2P jump at the end).
Something important to clear up: this is the fastest TAS of this level. Halo YT (aka USTA) made a TAS with a time of 22.71 (https://youtu.be/V6bcJ2V3SZQ) but he timed from first off white frame to the frame the star cutscene began (which is different than my timing method) and he was able to skip the beginning cutscene. For the same 2nd reason GogoTBC's RTA WR has a lower time (https://youtu.be/fiD1WvHr6qU). When comparing gameplay side by side, I finish the level faster. When I compared them to my TAS I gave them a bit of a head start because they have to start from standing and I get to do a landing cancel which gives me some initial momentum. Also, against Hime I am visibly faster by the time I arrive at the 2nd spike platform because of better optimization and he couldnt get a good cycle so he had to loop around which lost quite a bit of time. Although, it's actually possible to hit the corner switch while the spike platform is above it which was an oversight by Hime.
The only other route I tested was a mix of both of Halo's and Gogo's routes. I long jumped at the beginning like Gogo so I could set up for the triple jump at the end, and I got the upper right most switch on the left side (the one down left beside the starting switch) while heading to the bottom like Halo. This was so I didn't have to run as far up as Gogo before long jumping over to the right side. This route turned out to be slower than my initial run.
If you want to stay super up to date on my progress go check out my twitch, I live stream about 95% of what I TAS for this game: https://www.twitch.tv/mike_xander
