Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Sabre Wulf is a lesser known GBA puzzle platformer by Rare, who are known for the Banjo and Donkey Kong series, Goldeneye 007, It's Mr Pants, and many others. The goal is to steal golden relics from a wolf and then resell them to help pay for your private zoo, plus some other stuff about saving the world and collecting flowers.
This is a tool-assisted Low Optimized Movie Based on Real Effort (LOMBRE). That mainly refers to the effort made by jlun2 in making the original TAS and another movie that collected all the animals/keys in each level, and for documenting a ton about the game in the tasvideos forum. He never ended up making a 100% movie, but I would have had a much harder time without his work, even though I didn't directly use his inputs. I'm also indebted to B_G from GameFAQs for his 2004(!) walkthrough of Challenge Mode.
This movie finishes a file with 100%, which as far as I know hadn't been properly routed or completed on video before. I was inspired to do this because I did some any% speedruns of this game in the distant past, and recently checked speedrun.com recently only to notice that no runner had completed the 100% category - although I thought it would be more approachable to do it with tool assistance first. This run took 10 days, about 20k rerecords, and takes 1:45:35 to the last input necessary for 100%. The rest of the video just shows off what you get from doing 100%, like the changed title screen.
100% requires the following:
- Complete the main 64 levels of the game.
- Actually, do 16 of those again, because you need a gold treasure in each one to unlock all the levels in Challenge Mode.
- Collect every animal, from bags in the main levels as well as buying them in the shop. You also have to buy the compass.
- Finish the cow costume quest and the five orchid quests.
- Finish all 8 bonus areas, unlocked from keys you collect in 8 of the levels.
- Finally, with 94.4%, complete the non-lab levels again in Challenge Mode with at least a gold rating. This movie gets all Rare ratings because it's faster.
Movement is usually pretty simple. You lose time when you land and acceleration from a standstill is slow, unless you jump immediately. Falling too far without touching ground makes you trip and costs time, unless your jump was from something springy or you have Phoenix on. You can turn around instantly in the air, but on the ground it takes some time.
I had trouble trying to plan out gold. To buy everything you need requires 1270 more coins than you're guaranteed to get. You can get those coins from chests (hidden in the overworld and most of the levels; the level ones respawn each attempt), the bouncing coins that appear when objects are destroyed, selling treasure, and the chain/hit combo system that I don't really understand. Here I tried to get any chest that wasn't more than a few seconds away, but later in the run I realized I had way more coins than necessary, and ended up with about 1000 coins extra. You probably don't need any chests and could save a few minutes from not getting them.
Movie file on tasvideos: tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638166865030533079
Chapters:
0:23 - Campsite
2:53 - Blackwyche Village
9:13 - Karnath Jungle
16:57 - Underwurlde Mines
24:09 - Entombed Swamp
33:26 - Mount Knightlore
48:35 - Nightshade Mining Company
58:06 - Temple of Imhotep
1:11:26 - Dragonskulle Town
1:24:24 - Challenge Mode
Sabre Wulf is a lesser known GBA puzzle platformer by Rare, who are known for the Banjo and Donkey Kong series, Goldeneye 007, It's Mr Pants, and many others. The goal is to steal golden relics from a wolf and then resell them to help pay for your private zoo, plus some other stuff about saving the world and collecting flowers.
This is a tool-assisted Low Optimized Movie Based on Real Effort (LOMBRE). That mainly refers to the effort made by jlun2 in making the original TAS and another movie that collected all the animals/keys in each level, and for documenting a ton about the game in the tasvideos forum. He never ended up making a 100% movie, but I would have had a much harder time without his work, even though I didn't directly use his inputs. I'm also indebted to B_G from GameFAQs for his 2004(!) walkthrough of Challenge Mode.
This movie finishes a file with 100%, which as far as I know hadn't been properly routed or completed on video before. I was inspired to do this because I did some any% speedruns of this game in the distant past, and recently checked speedrun.com recently only to notice that no runner had completed the 100% category - although I thought it would be more approachable to do it with tool assistance first. This run took 10 days, about 20k rerecords, and takes 1:45:35 to the last input necessary for 100%. The rest of the video just shows off what you get from doing 100%, like the changed title screen.
100% requires the following:
- Complete the main 64 levels of the game.
- Actually, do 16 of those again, because you need a gold treasure in each one to unlock all the levels in Challenge Mode.
- Collect every animal, from bags in the main levels as well as buying them in the shop. You also have to buy the compass.
- Finish the cow costume quest and the five orchid quests.
- Finish all 8 bonus areas, unlocked from keys you collect in 8 of the levels.
- Finally, with 94.4%, complete the non-lab levels again in Challenge Mode with at least a gold rating. This movie gets all Rare ratings because it's faster.
Movement is usually pretty simple. You lose time when you land and acceleration from a standstill is slow, unless you jump immediately. Falling too far without touching ground makes you trip and costs time, unless your jump was from something springy or you have Phoenix on. You can turn around instantly in the air, but on the ground it takes some time.
I had trouble trying to plan out gold. To buy everything you need requires 1270 more coins than you're guaranteed to get. You can get those coins from chests (hidden in the overworld and most of the levels; the level ones respawn each attempt), the bouncing coins that appear when objects are destroyed, selling treasure, and the chain/hit combo system that I don't really understand. Here I tried to get any chest that wasn't more than a few seconds away, but later in the run I realized I had way more coins than necessary, and ended up with about 1000 coins extra. You probably don't need any chests and could save a few minutes from not getting them.
Movie file on tasvideos: tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638166865030533079
Chapters:
0:23 - Campsite
2:53 - Blackwyche Village
9:13 - Karnath Jungle
16:57 - Underwurlde Mines
24:09 - Entombed Swamp
33:26 - Mount Knightlore
48:35 - Nightshade Mining Company
58:06 - Temple of Imhotep
1:11:26 - Dragonskulle Town
1:24:24 - Challenge Mode
