PurpleSun | [TAS] SMG2: Sky Station GS3 1xA "full game route" @PurpleSunTAS | Uploaded 3 years ago | Updated 2 hours ago
The A press is used to start the Luma's cutscene, and is done in such a way to instantly end the cutscene, resulting in an unnecessary jump from a necessary A press.
At the start, I used Moosh's strat from his run of 0x gameplay A presses (i.e. excluding dialogue): youtu.be/-zCuJPmgL_A
The only difference is the angle and trajectory of the triple bounce, as Moosh had a better angle that bounced off the rock and landed closer to the Chomp, whereas I found that my angle could bounce off a green bulb that a Chomp pushed out. Probably slower but I like the variety.
In theory, the textbox skip works because you stand on the edge of the Luma's trigger area, and then get pushed off without touching the joystick (in this case crouching and uncrouching with Z) and press A just before leaving the trigger area. This A press starts the dialogue cutscene (evident by the camera zoom), but as Mario then leaves the area, it counts as ending the cutscene. In this case, ending the cutscene triggers the Luma to transform into a launch star.
There are other NPCs such as the Gold and Silver Gearmos from the C'mere levels where you can do this technique, but nothing happens aside from the camera zoom. The theory there is that because the progression from talking to the Gearmo (spawning the cage) happens *during* the cutscene, instantly ending the cutscene skips that and so it has no result.
As for the final planet, while landing on the higher platform before the Octoomba reaches the Octoomba 20 frames earlier than the lower platform - and also is fast enough to backwards bounce past the first elevator - it ends up getting a slower cycle on the third elevator, ultimately being 0.3s (24f) slower.
Taking the low route, it's necessary to get an electric shock in mid-air to get up to the Octoomba, as spinning from the ledge is barely too short and I couldn't manage to get a ledgegrab.
The second electric shock wasn't necessary as I could have just gone down at the second elevator and spun across, but I did it because of the accidental bouncy slide across the second elevator.
On the final elevator, I turned around and got clipped into the ceiling before getting pushed out with a walking animation, and finally a spin to the star.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #AButtonChallenge
The A press is used to start the Luma's cutscene, and is done in such a way to instantly end the cutscene, resulting in an unnecessary jump from a necessary A press.
At the start, I used Moosh's strat from his run of 0x gameplay A presses (i.e. excluding dialogue): youtu.be/-zCuJPmgL_A
The only difference is the angle and trajectory of the triple bounce, as Moosh had a better angle that bounced off the rock and landed closer to the Chomp, whereas I found that my angle could bounce off a green bulb that a Chomp pushed out. Probably slower but I like the variety.
In theory, the textbox skip works because you stand on the edge of the Luma's trigger area, and then get pushed off without touching the joystick (in this case crouching and uncrouching with Z) and press A just before leaving the trigger area. This A press starts the dialogue cutscene (evident by the camera zoom), but as Mario then leaves the area, it counts as ending the cutscene. In this case, ending the cutscene triggers the Luma to transform into a launch star.
There are other NPCs such as the Gold and Silver Gearmos from the C'mere levels where you can do this technique, but nothing happens aside from the camera zoom. The theory there is that because the progression from talking to the Gearmo (spawning the cage) happens *during* the cutscene, instantly ending the cutscene skips that and so it has no result.
As for the final planet, while landing on the higher platform before the Octoomba reaches the Octoomba 20 frames earlier than the lower platform - and also is fast enough to backwards bounce past the first elevator - it ends up getting a slower cycle on the third elevator, ultimately being 0.3s (24f) slower.
Taking the low route, it's necessary to get an electric shock in mid-air to get up to the Octoomba, as spinning from the ledge is barely too short and I couldn't manage to get a ledgegrab.
The second electric shock wasn't necessary as I could have just gone down at the second elevator and spun across, but I did it because of the accidental bouncy slide across the second elevator.
On the final elevator, I turned around and got clipped into the ceiling before getting pushed out with a walking animation, and finally a spin to the star.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #AButtonChallenge
![[TAS] SMG2: Sky Station GS3 1xA full game route](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ey9akCDygYo/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Sky Station GS3 1xA full game route
The A press is used to start the Lumas cutscene, and is done in such a way to instantly end the cutscene, resulting in an unnecessary jump from a necessary A press.
At the start, I used Mooshs strat from his run of 0x gameplay A presses (i.e. excluding dialogue): https://youtu.be/-zCuJPmgL_A
The only difference is the angle and trajectory of the triple bounce, as Moosh had a better angle that bounced off the rock and landed closer to the Chomp, whereas I found that my angle could bounce off a green bulb that a Chomp pushed out. Probably slower but I like the variety.
In theory, the textbox skip works because you stand on the edge of the Lumas trigger area, and then get pushed off without touching the joystick (in this case crouching and uncrouching with Z) and press A just before leaving the trigger area. This A press starts the dialogue cutscene (evident by the camera zoom), but as Mario then leaves the area, it counts as ending the cutscene. In this case, ending the cutscene triggers the Luma to transform into a launch star.
There are other NPCs such as the Gold and Silver Gearmos from the Cmere levels where you can do this technique, but nothing happens aside from the camera zoom. The theory there is that because the progression from talking to the Gearmo (spawning the cage) happens *during* the cutscene, instantly ending the cutscene skips that and so it has no result.
As for the final planet, while landing on the higher platform before the Octoomba reaches the Octoomba 20 frames earlier than the lower platform - and also is fast enough to backwards bounce past the first elevator - it ends up getting a slower cycle on the third elevator, ultimately being 0.3s (24f) slower.
Taking the low route, its necessary to get an electric shock in mid-air to get up to the Octoomba, as spinning from the ledge is barely too short and I couldnt manage to get a ledgegrab.
The second electric shock wasnt necessary as I could have just gone down at the second elevator and spun across, but I did it because of the accidental bouncy slide across the second elevator.
On the final elevator, I turned around and got clipped into the ceiling before getting pushed out with a walking animation, and finally a spin to the star.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #AButtonChallenge")
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Cosmic Cove Green Star 3 in 1:21.61](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FB2KuYX9OZo/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Cosmic Cove Green Star 3 in 1:21.61
Luigi and P2 jump out of water like those fish that jump out of water to collect a Green Star in 1 minute 21.61 seconds [IGT, 4897 frames].
The improvement here was suggested by Really_Tall, going around the water circle in the final section instead of swimming through it.
A regular water jump barely cant make it to the water above (going to where the 1-up is) and water long jumping further right takes too long overall.
But jumping back onto the solid part of the circle and backflipping up gets to the Goombas platform very quickly, and a backflip from there reaches the trigger for the water blocks as early as possible, earlier than bouncing off the Goomba or water jumping from above.
This saved 1.33s over the previous run, and saves ~2.3s over the normal RTA method of going through the circle and backflipping off the top of the Goombas platform.
The water here is strange - aside from the bottom part, entering with a jump or spin will not interact with the water until you have reached the peak of the jump/spin, so you can travel quite far into it. A jump + a spin before the peak goes even further.
[from previous run]
The first area could use some improvement. At a certain point, single skate jumps and double skate jumps have more speed than a skate long jump (ljs have an average speed of ~26 units per frame, jumps have ~27 units per frame over a shorter distance). Not sure at what point this extra speed occurs as trying skate jumps from the beginning had nowhere near that speed, and even after one lj, a single jump didnt get that speed.
The second area is where P2 shines. Breaking the bricks as P2 saves 0.3s over ground pounding, bursting the bubble saves 0.4s over trying to avoid it, breaking the box and shrinking the spiny at the start of the underwater section saved a few frames from a better line and no break stutter (Luigi stops when breaking a box underwater), and hitting the lever saves 2.5s.
This is where the first water long jump is; by holding Z when entering water and then picking up enough speed at the surface, you can long jump out of water.
Long jumping early and following with a single jump onto the used block saved 0.5s over long jumping later straight onto the used block.
The final section gets interesting. The moving water blocks at the top only start moving once you pass a point somewhere just above the big blue arrow, so optimisation is only really required in the first half - the second half doesnt have to be perfect as long as you make the cycle to get the earliest possible long jump to the star (when the third block is slightly raised).
[old ideas removed, see here: https://youtu.be/6-UTeD07tqI ]
The rest of the section was simple, as noted above, and involved setting up another Z-held water entry to get two water long jumps, one to the second block, and the final one to the star.
A weak spin was the only way to grab the star from that early of a long jump, so it saved a couple of frames.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[ABC TAS] SMG1: Good Egg 2 in 0x A presses [Luigi]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FNFdeW4mYBM/hqdefault.jpg "[ABC TAS] SMG1: Good Egg 2 in 0x A presses [Luigi]
Luigi floats away to let a Hungry Luma starve in 0 A presses.
This is tool-assisted.
This is a gameplay improvement of 0.5xA presses, not needing to hold A for higher spins or bounces at any point.
The main improvement is cutting out 6 A presses of dialogue (menuing) from the Hungry Luma.
After getting the new GE2 skip with just a sideflip setup for the crystal float (https://youtu.be/90QX5QEvo-s), I decided to try with just a Goomba bounce. As Mario, this is much harder and hasnt been done yet, but Luigi is much easier to get floating, and in this case, the flipping animation that usually happens on a crystal decided not to for reasons.
UPDATE (just a few hours later): Mario can do it at least 0.5xA https://youtu.be/XBWQlODVYKg
The star grab hadnt been proven without holding A (0.5) but was considered most likely possible and here it is.
#supermariogalaxy #abuttonchallenge")
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Slipsand Green Star 3 in 1:14.10 (outdated)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FQ7dW_1L-vU/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Slipsand Green Star 3 in 1:14.10 (outdated)
Luigi launches off a Romp to collect a Green Star in 1 minute 14.10 seconds [IGT, 4446 frames].
So this isnt exactly optimised but I had to show off this crazy new strat that happened completely accidentally. UPDATE: Romp launch has been optimised some more but still needs work: https://youtu.be/xsd_7sIqS90
Firstly, I mostly followed nemis IL (https://youtu.be/Wy2RYwIa-Ck?t=139) throughout the level, improving the first planet with some tighter long jumps and an earlier upwards strain towards the launch star.
I also used P2 to freeze a couple of troublesome fireballs.
For the second planet, I long jumped from the edges at 0:37 and 0:42, as edges of moving/scrolling floors do not have any friction, so long jumps are normal instead of being pulled back slightly.
This could save time for other long jumps here but the long jump route played out perfectly to bounce off one of the Pokey heads onto the block.
I tried long jumping earlier off the block to get horizontal displacement momentum (which happens sometimes when long jumping off a moving platform) with a forward angle, but this only went sideways, and walljumping off the closest wall is slower than angling to the right and jumping off the left wall.
For the slide, I started out doing the known strat of getting the Romp to push Luigi by sliding up against the edge, which wont get him crushed.
Whenever Luigi would start getting pushed to the side or start clipping into the floor, I tried jumping at different times with different angles and time spent holding A in order to stay in front of the Romp but above ground.
One time, though, this ended up with jumping at a certain point where Luigi had clipped slightly inside the Romp and floor, so the game had ejected him by ~170 units. The jump then conserved most of this speed, going at a hspd of ~130 units/frame.
Assuming units are centimetres, this would be at least 174 miles per hour. This speed was constant as speed cant be changed during a slope jump in SMG2.
Angle also cant be changed from slope jumps, so I had to deal with going to the left. I timed a ground pound to land up-left of the star, so I could move down and right at a faster slide speed to reach the star.
This strat was 3 seconds faster than getting Romp pushed all the way.
This could obviously be improved by just getting the launch earlier, but could also be improved if we can figure out how to jump to the right, which may simply be a case of getting pushed on the left edge of a Romp so that we have to angle to the right to keep getting pushed.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG2: Gravity Gauntlet Green Stars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/G010GA_JDRc/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Gravity Gauntlet Green Stars
Green Stars TAS WIP
Star order would matter with the fireball cycles for GS1 if it werent for the 2P freeze strat levelling out cutscenes and no-cutscenes. Otherwise GS2 first would be 3 or 4 frames faster.
Green Star 2 - 19.86s IGT - 1:31:06.06 real-time split (1:16.11 segment)
This is a 0.69s improvement over my 2020 TAS (0.69s plus cutscene difference): https://youtu.be/5PdldVGADec
One of the key improvements was being able to long jump into the sideways lava wall without having to spin cancel, which saves 9 frames. Usually, getting a lava-wall boost here would send Luigi downwards (As seen here by nemi43: https://youtu.be/EWGiL2oEMRg?&t=218) but there is a precise spot in the corner that sends the boost sideways.
The brief 180 in the boost sequence helps to line up the third boost to get an earlier gravity switch that can stay close enough to the left to be able to get the extra boost, while also managing to go further up the new gravity field to end up closer to the star. This saves 18 frames over trying to go straight right the whole time.
The other key improvement is in the final boost, where it is 21 frames faster to go around the Whomp rather than under it, which was only possible with the earlier gravity switch.
A couple of frames were saved by going neutral before double jumping which affects jump height and speed, and another frame was saved by holding back for a frame during the double jump to have a lower speed triple jump, keeping it closer to the star.
Green Star 1 - 11.33 IGT - 1:32:00.48 real-time split (54.42s segment)
This is a 0.7s improvement over my TAS made in 2020: https://youtu.be/y-k1jR0HPbs
The IL WR by Ethanrocks (https://youtu.be/m759Lysh9IU) showed that a single jump was enough height for a fireball boost to reach the crate, which made up the bulk of improvement over my TAS.
The issue with this boost is that it wont let you long jump until the end of the fire run, but this run can be cut short by going onto an edge.
Some slowing down of the long jump around the curve resulted in a better long jump off the step that overall saved 2 frames.
#supermariogalaxy2 #toolassistedspeedrun")
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Chompworks Green Star 2 in 33.73s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HgSvHzpwEuE/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Chompworks Green Star 2 in 33.73s
Luigi yeets into a Green Star in 33.73 seconds [IGT, 2024 frames].
I wait the fly-in cutscene until the last possible frame to skip it, simply to start the in-game timer as late as possible into the chomp cycle. Waiting the first cutscene for a brief moment might save a few frames. Oops. P2 helped save that in-game time by being able to hit the lever much faster.
A little bit of time for a playaround while waiting for the Chomp, making sure not to spin the Octogoombas to cause hitlag.
Being on the ground in front of the Chomp when it explodes saves 0.5s over the long jump strat that is done in runs. After the launch star cutscene, the camera moves to centre Luigi, and so the long jump makes the camera tilt upwards, but staying on the floor skips this tilt, gaining control much earlier.
This strat had been found by jda7 long ago.
However, the reason why runners do a long jump is because it has some kind of effect on Luigi that lets him start moving much earlier on the 2nd planet. But we found out that backflipping can also get this effect, so I backflip on the frame just before losing control to be low enough for the cutscene camera skip but still get the early movement.
The next planet was relatively simple, the bounce on the Gearmo being slightly faster and also setting up a perfect long jump chain.
Camera cancel doesnt appear to work on the 3rd planet, but jump land cancel does.
Finally, I got a good angle on the flip panel jump by turning while spinning off the edge, and then turning more on the panel, so I didnt have to go off to the left for a line-up.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG2: Puzzle Plank Green Stars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HhrQVk9K4EU/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Puzzle Plank Green Stars
Green Stars TAS WIP (World 2 start)
Star order: GS1 is a few frames slower to do first due to the land cancel benefiting the other stars more.
When skipping cutscenes, a Wiggler gets close to the button, and GS3 uses starbits for the star grab strat, so it was more convenient to do GS2 first and have cutscene skips for GS3, with a Wiggler strat explained below.
Green Star 2 - 23.53 IGT - 23:39.53 real-time split (1:21.63 segment)
Ground pounding too close to the edge either leads to not letting you regain control of Luigi until the bottom, or leads to falling off the block too soon and catching the gravity above.
Instant turnaround for the long jump off the button seems to happen by long jumping off the block before Luigi finishes turning - thats the only way I managed it.
Getting to the wallkick to star grab, I let go of A on the first spin a few frames before reaching the wall, which sacrificed a little bit of height but grabbed the wall a couple of frames earlier, saving a frame overall.
Green Star 3 - 31.06 IGT - 24:54.06 real-time split (1:14.53 segment)
Left side pound and right side pound take the same time to get to the button, but the benefit of left side here is that the Wiggler is on-screen for longer, so it gets to the perfect spot to be squished when pounding the button.
Not all of the 6 starbits are needed for the flipbug, as its horizontal knockback decreases drastically with each bit, and it reaches an optimal spot with only 4, so I shoot 2 at the other Greens.
For the plank fall, I tried various lines and movements but they all bottlenecked at the same point. The trigger is very wide there.
For the plank jump, I tried to squeeze out every unit to make a spinless triple jump work, but the best I could get bumped up off the edge and didnt land.
The backflip was able to (barely) work as it could be done much higher up and further along the plank thanks to a quick slope jump. This was 6f faster than a triple jump with a delayed airspin cancel.
While the bounce ended up bumping against the wall, it didnt lose time. Might have got the same time while cleaning that up but oh well.
Green Star 1 - 3.31 IGT - 25:40.85 real-time split (46.79 split)
+1f IGT but -1f real-time from IL. Cutscene skips and gaining control and stuff.
Mega triple jumps. Yeah. Momentum conservation with neutral joystick, and tilt bonus on jumps, and gravity and stuff.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Twisty Trials Green Star 1 in 12.75s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HvjGbRIUNFo/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Twisty Trials Green Star 1 in 12.75s
Luigi gets an extra boosted cloud jump to a Green Star in 12.75 seconds [IGT, 765 frames].
The cycles arent completely optimised for in-game time like you see here: https://youtu.be/Ka3MRTkbiN0
However, they do still work out very well, and the turn of the last block was actually better than if it was flat, as for some reason, I could long jump on a certain frame early into the cloud formation and get a ridiculous amount of height, allowing me to grab the star earlier than normal.
I believe this is linked to the edge of the block, as only a small angle range would work, and doing the same long jump timing on flat ground ended up nowhere close to the height gained here.
It may be that either Luigi got bumped up the edge and that 1 frame of vertical speed was conserved by the long jump, or that the cloud (which doesnt like being formed inside a moving object) was pushed up slightly when forming.
Also, the 2nd cutscene was skipped at an optimal real time, where I can pull off the earliest long jump, however, this is a 2 or 3 frame deficit for in-game time, as theres some strange bump at the very start so you dont start moving until 2 or 3 frames after you possibly could.
If I delayed this skip another frame, this same thing would happen so Id get a later long jump, but its only by skipping 4 frames later that you avoid this, which means the long jump would come out later. So an optimal in-game time could be a 12.70 while losing a bit of real time.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG2: Chompworks GS2 in 0.5xA presses [Mario]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HwGHVvVgU5o/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Chompworks GS2 in 0.5xA presses [Mario]
This doesnt save any presses within the level itself, but confirms that Mario can match Luigi, so we can avoid unlocking the Luigi Ghost, saving a menuing A press.
Luigi can do this strat with the Goombeetle (https://youtu.be/JhJkyGLEIS0), and while Mario might be able to do it too, I opted to try using edge lift - getting some extra height by landing on the edge of a ledge, which doesnt snap Mario down to the floor - to reach the weird floor on the windowsill above the Chomp spawner. This worked out.
On the first planet, spinning up the slope was something that worked in SMG1 but seemed to mostly be patched in SMG2, however it is still possible by going to the very edge, similar to how the slope jump-spin is also still possible.
The Octoomba close to the hole was defeated with a spin so that it wouldnt spawn a coin that would be picked up from the launch star.
I stood in front of the hole to get an instant cutscene exit, skipping the camera tilting back to centre Mario. I also held Z before spinning into the launch star to get an instant walk on the next planet.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #AButtonChallenge")
![[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Throwback Green Star 2 in 12.95s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/I0q_-Uq9a1w/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy 2: Throwback Green Star 2 in 12.95s
Luigi triple jumps off a Whomps foot to collect a Green Star in 12.95 seconds [IGT, 777 frames].
This is nemis strat but optimised some more, including a slightly later cutscene skip to lower the in-game time: https://youtu.be/JDIA3AKrIns
I also did Sonicpackers movement slope jumping across the fence, however I couldnt figure out how to get as fast a slope jump as he does, despite trying several things, including what usually works for fast forward slope jumps, so that could be a few frames of improvement: https://youtu.be/bM8_97MG_Wk
I did this while testing the cutscene cycles between this and GS1; it had been known that doing GS2 first was better, but I wanted to test some ideas to possibly close or widen the gap.
Despite such ideas working out, cutscene cycles are much better for GS2, as the Whomp is right by the star, whereas for GS1, the moving platform blocks off a ground pound to the star. GS2 first is faster by 1.2 seconds.
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #ToolAssistedSpeedrun")
![[TAS] SMG2: Beat Block Comet in 0xA presses [Mario]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IDk6kXSYTIo/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMG2: Beat Block Comet in 0xA presses [Mario]
This saves 0.5x over the previous count, grabbing the star without needing the extra spin height from holding A by using some edge tech explained below.
Beat Block is now completely 0xA.
Most of this run was mucking about with all the ways to avoid death such as wallspinning onto a changing block and ground pounding inside a floor to regain spin.
I also sometimes used an airspin cancel to land earlier, pressing Z just above ground during a spin.
The star grab involved landing on the edge of the floor in neutral so Mario would slide off, but this slide gains a bit of height, so that, when holding backwards, it is possible to hover over a small bit of ground and still be able to spin in the air, getting close enough that the spin can grab the star.
This tech was previously seen here: https://youtu.be/OSxe7LyYhC8
#SuperMarioGalaxy2 #AButtonChallenge")
