Name: EarthBound Walkthrough - Pyramid (Part A) @nemi43
Uploaded: 2024-10-14T08:17:00-05:00
Duration: 8 min 17 s
Description: EarthBound Walkthrough - Pyramid (Part A)

EarthBound Walkthrough - Pyramid (Part A)

nemi43 2024-10-14 | EarthBound Walkthrough - Pyramid (Part A)

Grandmaster 1 & C

nemi43 2020-11-12 | The most significant time saves of these runs are the dismount and remount of Yoshi at 0:35 and 2:48. This game lets you maintain full lateral speed in the air for only about 10 seconds. This imposes a limit on the distance infinite flutter can travel quickly, but there are a few ways to reset this timer: dismounting from Yoshi, remounting Yoshi, and doing another head shake all reset this timer and allow Yoshi to efficiently infinite flutter from the 2nd section to the Launch Star at the end of the 3rd section. This not only skips most of those 2 sections, but it also allows us to keep Yoshi and use infinite flutter to the end of the level.

I use Mario for both Stars because he can long-jump about 7 frames earlier than Luigi, and Mario's long-jump is fast enough that he doesn't lose time during just 1 long-jump. Luigi moves slightly faster backwards after dismounting Yoshi, but as far as I can tell, this provides only a couple frames of advantage.

The Ultimate Test - 1:46.98

When starting a backwards flutter, Yoshi can move faster if he head-shakes and starts fluttering as close to the ground as possible. This only slightly saves time during the first couple flutters of this Star, but it becomes important in the next section.

0:27 - It's critical to get as much speed as possible during the backwards flutter away from the 2nd section. Without the speed increase from the low backwards flutter, Yoshi will lose almost all speed during the sideways infinite flutter before reaching the next Launch Star. With the increased speed, the backwards flutters can be ended early at 8 flutters and still allow the sideways flutters to reach the next Launch Star before stopping.

0:34 - Just before dismounting Yoshi, I release the analog stick for about a second to slow down. Dismounting at full speed requires further delaying the ground-pound in order to remount Yoshi, and that loses too much height to reach the Launch Star.

After remounting Yoshi, I turn left, do a midair jump, and start a sideways infinite flutter. To be able to turn left, it seems like the analog stick needs to be held downwards during the jump at the beginning of the backwards flutters. If the stick is neutral during the jump, holding left won't cause Yoshi to turn after the remount.

The midair jump always works as long as the A button is pressed with the correct timing. The timing window seems lenient, and it usually wasn't a problem during attempts.

1:40 - The Boomerang Bros. can be defeated extremely quickly with Yoshi's tongue and 2P, as shown by PurpleSun's TAS: youtube.com/watch?v=iB0gigyiIo0. In retrospect, hitting each Boomerang Bros. with Yoshi's tongue and then bouncing on each even without 2P would have been about 0.2 seconds faster than what I did.

1:45 - The Star grab is about 7 frames late, but I got my goal time of 1:46 by 1 frame, so I settled for it :p

2:11 - The Perfect Run - 1:50.68

2:15 - The low backwards flutters save about 3 seconds over using the Flower Grapples in the 1st section of the Comet Star. I initially jump to the left and delay the head shake a bit to get more speed in the first 3 flutters. Trying to head shake as soon as possible usually gained less speed, but TAS precise execution could probably make it work better.

3:25 - I usually held up on the analog stick when bouncing off the Toad. However, sometimes I needed to hold very slightly left to avoid missing the next Launch Star to the right. It seemed like I needed to do this if the bounce on the Octopus at 3:17 was on the left half of its body.

3:55 - I was extremely lucky to not get hit by a boomerang after ground-pounding the last Boomerang Bros. I don't know if the boomerang's shadow is indicative of its hit box, but it looks like Mario is just barely to the left of it. I collect the sole Star Bit so I could shoot the incoming boomerang, but I completely forgot to shoot. (I likely would have missed anyway.)

Remount extended infinite flutter

nemi43 2020-08-27 | The fog might make it a little hard to see, but it should be clear what is happening. Dismounting and remounting Yoshi in mid-air resets the game's velocity time limit and allows an extended infinite flutter at the expense of height.

This set of flutters can save about 7 seconds. (I lost about 3 seconds in this demo.) Keeping Yoshi for the rest of Grandmaster saves an additional 10 seconds or so. On emulator test runs, I've been able to get under 2 minutes on "The Ultimate Test."

The input display and RAM watch script is by Yoshifan:
github.com/yoshifan/ram-watch-cheat-engine

0:05 - Starting the first set of flutters with a sideflip + spin was the best way I could find to get the most speed. ("Z Vel" in the input display.) Getting as much speed as possible is absolutely critical because small differences in the distance covered at the beginning can make a difference of several seconds when fluttering towards the Launch Star at the end.

0:17 - There is a small timing window in which Yoshi can jump after remounting. While this jump isn't strictly necessary, I found it helped get Yoshi closer to the Launch Star before losing speed.

Sky Station 1, C, and GS2

nemi43 2020-01-23 | Peewee Piranha's Temper Tantrum - 1:23.85

0:06 - After talking to the Luma, I look away from the cylinder planet so the wagons on that planet move less. This is to make a long-jump on that planet a little easier to execute.

0:14 - The first 2 long-jumps on the second planet are precise. I need to be far enough to the left to prevent the second set of elevators from moving too much, but I also need to prevent bumping into the Luma.

I had to slow down a little before long-jumping off the second set of elevators. Letting the intro play a tiny bit more can provide better timing, which is what I do in Green Star 2.

0:24 - The spinless Luma bounce is from Pottoww's IL of this Star. I need to be far enough to the left to prevent the Luma from spinning when I spin because I want the Luma to be as far left as possible. The farther left the Luma is, the higher it seems to be. I face down-right during the backflip and hold up during the bounce.

youtube.com/watch?v=PmVlvTOvgDA&t=36s

0:37 - Ideally, this wagon would be a little earlier in its cycle to better set up the long-jump. However, doing the spinless Luma bounce seems to cause the wagon to move further in its cycle, and I couldn't find a way to position the wagon better without messing up the timing of the second set of elevators on the second planet.

Also, I was expecting to bonk against the wagon at the end of this long-jump. This run was the first time I avoided a bonk. Hence, the needless jump before the Luma arrives.

1:03 - In my timing tests of the first phase of Peewee, starting the long-jump as early as possible was fastest. This also allows doing a spin with the Wiimote without holding A while avoiding a hit from Peewee, whereas a later long-jump might require a higher spin.

Doing a jump by mashing A before the second phase starts can cause Luigi to get stuck after the cutscene. I work around this problem by just wiggling the control stick a little at the start of the second phase.

On the second phase, I again tried to start the long-jump as early as possible but had to spin with the nunchuck without holding A.

When approaching the Star, it seems fastest to start the long-jump close to the Star. This might be different for Mario.

1:46 - Peewee Piranha's Speed Run - 0:40.06

I let the first half of the intro play a little to adjust the positions of the wagons on the second planet.

1:59 - I can't do the boosted long-jump off a wagon like in the first Star. There are twice as many wagons on this planet, now, and one of them blocks the path of the long-jump.

2:53 - Green Star 2 - 0:21.91

I let the intro play a tiny bit more than in the first Star for a better timing of the second set of elevators.

SMG2 71-Star with Banktoad in 2:58:39

nemi43 2019-12-16 | Slightly late last split. Precise end time is about 2:58:39.5.

Speedrun.com leaderboard and resources: speedrun.com/smgalaxy2
Cyberscore individual Star and other leaderboards: cyberscore.me.uk/game/627
SDA Knowledge Base of strats, mechanics, and techniques: kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Super_Mario_Galaxy_2

Video timestamp - Star name - Star time
0:00 - Prologue
2:44 - Sky Station 1 - 1:50.00
7:00 - Sky Station 2 - 1:43.11
9:45 - Yoshi Star 1 - 1:35.70 - Lost about 5 seconds on the last planet.
12:26 - Yoshi Star 2 - 1:19.01
14:48 - Spin-Dig 1 - 2:30.78
18:46 - Rightside Down 1 - 1:08.73
20:36 - Rightside Down H - 0:55.13
22:30 - Fluffy Bluff 1 - 0:55.86
24:24 - Fluffy Bluff H - 1:31.90
26:55 - Fiery Flotilla 1 - 1:36.35
30:17 - Puzzle Plank 1 - 1:28.01
32:59 - Hightail Falls 1 - 1:11.53
35:14 - Cosmic Cove 1 - 1:38.73
38:10 - Cosmic Cove H - 1:00.63
40:43 - Honeybloom H - 0:16.38
41:59 - Honeybloom 1 - 1:48.38 - Lost about 2 seconds by accidentally touching the Bee Mushroom at 42:58.
44:55 - Lava Lair 1 - 4:19.55 - Lost about 15 seconds: lost the Life Mushroom at 45:39, which precluded the lava boost shortcut over the Bowser statues.
51:00 - Cloudy Court 1 - 1:04.43
53:13 - Freezy Flake H - 1:33.30 - Lost about 2 seconds by mistiming the first fireball.
55:32 - Freezy Flake 1 - 0:57.40 - Lost about 1 second by failing a clip onto the slide at 55:53.
57:31 - Haunty Halls 1 - 1:22.35 - Lost about 11 seconds due to an errant backflip at 57:48, which caused me to miss the early platforms at 57:57 and 58:25.
1:00:02 - Haunty Halls 2 - 0:55.56
1:02:35 - Beat Block 1 - 0:49.71 - Lost about 6 seconds by missing the Comet Medal, which messed up my timing for the remainder of the level.
1:04:26 - Tall Trunk 1 - 1:34.03 - Lost about 4 seconds at the beginning due to missing the triple jump onto the first platform on the tree.
1:07:04 - Cloudy Court C - 0:52.05
1:09:06 - Puzzle Plank C - 0:33.75
1:10:38 - Sky Station C - 0:59.01
1:12:36 - Yoshi Star C - 0:43.21
1:14:50 - Flip-Swap 1 - 0:38.38 - Lost about 6 seconds due to misaligning the last boosted jump towards the Star. This jump needed to be angled farther to the left to get a speed boost required to reach the Star.
1:16:54 - Fearsome Fleet 1 - 2:19.16
1:21:36 - Sweet Mystery 1 - 0:45.73
1:23:22 - Flipsville 1 - 1:17.28
1:25:56 - Flipsville 2 - 1:03.16
1:27:54 - Sweet Mystery C - 1:06.53
1:30:08 - Flipsville C - 1:05.96 - Lost about 3 seconds by missing the coins to Mario's right at 1:30:17.
1:32:03 - Chompworks 1 - 1:59.40
1:35:06 - Chompworks 2 - 0:59.18 - Lost about 4 seconds on the last planet.
1:37:13 - Starshine Beach 1 - 1:34.76 - Lost about 4 seconds collecting the last Silver Star.
1:39:50 - Starshine Beach 2 - 0:35.90
1:41:34 - Chompworks C - 0:51.50
1:43:26 - Gravity Gauntlet 1 - 3:47.96
1:49:04 - Boulder Bowl 1 - 1:47.85 - Lost about 8 seconds due to hitting a Chomp at 1:49:34.
1:51:50 - Boulder Bowl H - 0:51.70
1:53:51 - Hightail Falls C - 1:07.25
1:56:02 - Boulder Bowl C - 0:48.48
1:58:15 - Fiery Flotilla C - 1:00.36
1:59:56 - Space Storm 1 - 1:09.40
2:02:06 - Space Storm 2 - 0:28.20
2:03:32 - Shiverburn H - 1:29.55
2:05:42 - Shiverburn 1 - 1:44.45
2:08:39 - Upside Dizzy 1 - 0:46.48
2:10:15 - Upside Dizzy H - 0:59.35
2:12:18 - Boo Moon H - 1:02.21
2:14:08 - Boo Moon 1 - 1:25.83
2:16:40 - Shiverburn C - 0:34.26
2:18:15 - Boom Bunker 1 - 2:13.25
2:22:11 - Melty Monster 1 - 1:25.01
2:24:46 - Melty Monster 2 - 0:56.03 - Lost about 2 seconds at the beginning.
2:26:23 - Melty Monster H - 1:02.30
2:28:18 - Clockwork Ruins H - 1:14.83
2:30:37 - Throwback 1 - 1:32.00 - There is a faster but riskier strat against the boss that can save about 2 seconds. Also missed a wall jump at the beginning.
2:33:17 - Throwback 2 - 0:52.90
2:35:46 - Flash Black 1 - 1:09.38
2:38:02 - Slimy Spring 1 - 2:14.28 - Lost about 2 seconds by getting hit by a Snoodle before the Launch Star. Also forgot to split, but the split time should be 2:40:19.0.
2:41:29 - Haunty Halls C - 0:31.45
2:43:03 - Beat Block C - 0:36.93
2:44:49 - Gravity Gauntlet C - 0:48.43 - Lost about 11 seconds due to poor execution after the lava boost.
2:46:34 - Starshine Beach C - 0:37.36
2:48:13 - Throwback C - 0:54.51
2:50:00 - Flash Black C - 0:51.03
2:52:01 - Galaxy Generator 1 - 6:39.88

Galaxy Generator IL runs (All Stars)

nemi43 2017-08-28 | Bowser's Fortified Fortress - 5:02.36

0:16 - It's possible to reach the Drill with 1 lava hit instead of 2 to save just under a second. The 2nd lava hit can be avoided pretty consistently as long as the first hit is off the same place on the ledge. The more difficult part is having enough height to get past the last lavafall. This requires hitting the lava from a high enough spot and keeping the analog stick at a good angle (up and slightly left).

Once past the last lavafall, I briefly hold down and then hold up-right before landing to ensure Luigi is facing the dirt patch when he lands.

0:26 - The route I used on the Drill planet is the same as the any% route. Compared to Sonicpacker's TAS, this route is about 0.4 seconds faster (though it's not as creative). This time save allows the elevators on the next planet to be in better positions.

youtube.com/watch?v=Y82G8cRACY4&t=33s

0:53 - I was thinking of doing 2 cloud boosted single jumps and then a backflip to grab the second Cloud Flower. When I timed it, though, using 1 boosted jump into a wall-jump was just as fast and much easier.

1:50 - For some reason, I often accidentally moved the camera when landing after the flutter. The landing stun was still cancelled, so I don't think I lost much time.

5:36 - Bowser's Big Bad Speed Run - 1:40.38

7:43 - Green Star 1 - 0:19.50

8:26 - Green Star 2 - 1:24.98

Slimy Spring: The Chimps Coin Challenge - 20,090 points, 3:22.10

nemi43 2017-06-15 | This was pretty sloppy, but my goal was 20,000 points, so I'm just going to move on.

I believe there is a total of at least 30,570 points but nowhere near enough time to collect them all. There is barely enough time to reach the end of the level, which is one of the more lucrative sections. Generally, it's better to move quickly and efficiently rather than taking time to collect every point around you.

Regarding the Star time, the only parts that matter are the beginning and end since the mini-game duration is fixed. (Certain actions might cause lag, but I haven't found any examples.) Mario can be a few frames faster at both parts because he accelerates quicker, but Luigi might have an advantage in collecting points because he can save a bit of time outside of water.

1:01 - I missed an Urchin with this shell. The trajectory looked fine, but I think the shell passed through the Urchin because the Urchin was off-camera when I dove to grab the next shell. You can see the thrown shell breaking behind the Urchins just after 1:06.

1:50 - The Boo section was awful. I want to be close to 16,500 points after all the Boos, but I barely broke 16,000.

3:00 - If you turn the camera around in the final area, the Urchins become active again and resume rolling down the slope. If one of them rolls into a stationary green shell, that counts as a hit and the Urchin gets defeated, granting 300 points.

Usually only 1 Urchin will suicide, but I was lucky and got 2. This was key for breaking 20,000.

Wild Glide 1, Letter, GS2

nemi43 2017-06-04 | I did these runs because Packattack's videos of these Stars don't seem to be available anymore.

Like in Fleet Glide, Mario can be a bit faster than Luigi at the beginning and end because he accelerates faster. I described how Fluzzard moves in my description for Fleet Glide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmpawoTiNjI

Fluzzard's First Flight - 1:24.31

1:47 - Jungle Fluzzard Race - 1:24.31

3:34 - Green Star 2 - 1:04.48

The Chimps Bowling Challenge in 57.21

nemi43 2017-05-18 | This one took a lot of planning and practice, but it didn't take many attempts once I settled on a method.

This Star is accessible from either the first or second Star. Luigi starts a little closer to the pipe on the second Star, so I select "A Stroll Down Rolling Lane." (Selecting "The Chimp's Bowling Challenge" defaults to the first Star.)

0:19 - Normally after rolling up a ramp, the Rock Mushroom automatically cancels after landing on the next platform. You can prevent the Rock Mushroom from stopping by doing a jump and a spin before landing on a ramp. The ramp won't activate during the spinning animation, and you can reach the next platform by manually jumping off the top of the ramp.

It can sometimes be difficult to reach the next platform after a manual jump. In those cases, doing a spin can help because it slightly increases your speed. (More specifically, jumping slows you down a bit and doing a spin slows you down less.) Doing spins can also help you stay in rock form for a longer time.

0:32 - I stop here so that the 3 pins on the rotating platform on the next set of pins are accessible. Without stopping, I'll end up rolling across the side of the platform without the pins, and I wasn't able to get the required 5000 points without those 3 pins.

Melty Monster IL runs - GS3 & Star 2

nemi43 2017-05-01 | Green Star 3 - 48.78

0:33 - Hitting a Star Crystal can cost 1 or 2 frames of lag, but avoiding them can requires taking a less direct path through a section. When I timed it out, turning to avoid the crystals is slightly faster than rolling straight through them.

0:45 - Doing a spin during each jump can save a frame per jump.

0:47 - Emperor91 showed how this Star can be reached with midair Rock Mushroom jumps:

youtube.com/watch?v=-Si9Jftbk8A&t=28s

Yoshifan investigated exactly how to execute the jumps:

docs.google.com/document/d/13HenHN3IA2mQih2k8Ve_VZdK-yIoX8fnXB2g2eMaZGM/edit

Basically, press A in middair and start a spin 3 to 6 frames later. After a successful jump, you can spin again for another jump and keep chaining spins and jumps indefinitely.

This doesn't sound very difficult except for a few complications:

1. If you miss the proper timing for an A press, you won't be able to spin again.

2. A midair jump tends to restart the spin so what looks like a single spin is actually 2 or even 3 consecutive spins. I've seen a spin restart between 1 to 11 frames after the start of the original spin. Given condition 1, I need to press A with the proper timing for all 2 or 3 spins per shake if I want another chance at a jump, and this Star requires an additional shake to reach.

3. An A press cannot be earlier than 1 frame before a previous spin. That means a spin cannot restart in 1 frame, which tends to happen if I shake the nunchuck too hard. Generally, the weaker I shake, the later a spin restarts and is more likely to restart only once rather than twice. Shaking too lightly, though, delays the start of the spin or doesn't cause a spin at all.

My method for attempting these jumps was to lightly shake the nunchuck and press A 2 or 3 times as quickly as possible at the same time as the shake. I'm not sure if 2 or 3 presses is better, but I used 3 presses in my only successful attempt.

1:12 - A Stroll Down Rolling Lane - 51.80

I did this Star mainly as practice for GS3 and to see if I could get 51.xx.

Melty Monster 1 & GS2 IL runs

nemi43 2017-04-17 | The Magnificent Magma Sea - 1:13.43

0:26 - The bottom edge of the lava wave acts like a wall, so you can gain speed by damaging off of it to save a second or so. I boost off of the earliest possible wave cycle, which requires a mostly blind setup and then getting the coin from the crystal. I could use a later wave by letting the intro play longer, but that causes the tornadoes to be positioned badly and prevents skipping the first two tornadoes.

0:56 - Luigi can long-jump past the first few asteroids by just holding down-left.

1:38 - Green Star 2 - 40.85

I let the first half of the intro play so that the tornado below the Star is farther to the left.

2:08 - It's possible to camera-cancel this landing by pressing up on the D-pad on the first dust frame.

Flip-Out IL runs: Star 1, Comet, and GS2

nemi43 2017-04-09 | Wicked Wall Jumps - 1:02.80

I let the intro play for a few seconds to adjust the positioning of the first Choppah.

0:12 - This is a glitch called Mega Sideflip found by NEG_taro:

youtube.com/watch?v=wsh07wMnjRk

Do a sideflip directly toward or away from the camera, then hold left or right as soon as the jump starts. The sooner you tilt to the side, the higher you'll usually reach, but the glitch can be inconsistent. When testing on emulator, there were times when I got very little extra height, even when tilting to the side on the earliest possible frame.

This glitch works only in certain places. It tends to work in areas where the camera's facing angle doesn't change much as you move, but I don't know the exact requirements.

0:29 - I couldn't find a way to adjust the timing of these spikes on the first Star, but they can be adjusted on the Comet Star and Green Star 2 by letting the intro play.

0:41 - I couldn't adjust the timing of these spikes on any of the Stars.

You can also get through this section by jumping up to the top of the back wall, as datteo1 did in his run:

youtube.com/watch?v=YJt3-MUXrTo&t=56s

However, when I timed it, taking the normal path was about 0.5 seconds faster.

1:29 - Cosmic Clone Wall Jumpers - 1:04.43

3:01 - Green Star 2 - 55.65

3:59 - Reaching the Star with a wall-jump off the left wall can be difficult because Luigi would often lose some speed after the jump. A somewhat consistent way to prevent this speed loss was to move the analog stick in a semi-circle from left to right at the same time Luigi touches the wall.

A minor use for mega sideflip

nemi43 2017-02-28 | Mega sideflip is a glitch found by NEG_taro:

youtube.com/watch?v=wsh07wMnjRk

This glitch seems to work only in certain places. It just so happens to work in Flip-Out, and it can save about 3 seconds.

The glitch is rather finicky, and I'm not sure how best to do it. Start by doing a sideflip while facing directly away or towards the camera, and then hold left or right as soon as the jump starts. Generally, the sooner you hold left or right, the higher the sideflip will reach.

The amount of height I get is inconsistent, ranging from almost no extra height to above the blue platform I'm trying to reach. Even on emulator, there were times when I got almost no extra height, even when holding sideways on the earliest possible frame.

Initially, I thought where the glitch works depends on the camera because it seems to work in places where the camera's vertical and horizontal facing angles don't change much. However, the glitch can work in Battlerock on the Gearmo minigame platform but only after the mini-game is completed and the Star appears. I couldn't discern any difference in the camera behavior before and after the mini-game, so that left me stumped.

Recorded on Dolphin. Input display by Yoshifan:

github.com/yoshifan/ram-watch-cheat-engine

Boss Blitz ILs - All Stars

nemi43 2017-02-26 | Throwback Throwdown - 3:16.00

0:38 - On the first hit against King Kaliente, it can save 1 or 2 frames if you stand a bit farther away from him than as close as possible. If you stand farther away, the coconut takes a straight path from Luigi to Kaliente, whereas if you stand too close, the coconut veers to the left or right.

0:55 - On the last phase against Kaliente, you can either jump as close to him as possible to get 3 quick hits and then lava hop to the Launch Star, or you can stay closer to land to avoid the lava. Avoiding the lava seems to be about 0.2~0.3 seconds faster.

1:09 - Major Burrows is the first random part of the run. When Major Burrows emerges from the ground at the beginning can vary by a few seconds. In the 2nd and 3rd phases, where Major Burrows appears is random, and he can spawn either right next to Luigi or on the other side of the planet. I got extremely good luck here.

1:48 - It's random when the Bomb Boos appear during Bouldergeist's rock throwing attacks. Ideally, 2 Bomb Boos will appear during the first volley, but sometimes only 1 Bomb Boo will appear.

2:15 - You can prevent a Bomb Boo from moving around by entering first-person view and looking away. In the 2nd half of the fight, this can prevent Bouldergeist from crushing a Bomb Boo when it smashes the ground with its hands, even if a Bomb Boo is underneath.

3:44 - Green Star 1 - 1:06.66

4:49 - The long-jump towards the Star could've been aimed better, but it took me a lot longer than I would've liked to get the land-cancel on the Major Burrows planet, so I settled for this. The game doesn't allow first-person view on this planet, and I thought the run was short enough to go for a jump cancel.

5:17 - Green Star 2 - 1:47.71

This run was my first attempt :p

7:05 - When grabbing the Star, it looks like doing an instant ground-pound is about 0.1 seconds slower than just falling onto the Star.

7:32 - Throwback Throwdown Speed Run - 3:19.23

The Comet Star is exactly the same as the main Star, and a 3.23 second difference might seem like a lot, but the difference is mostly due to better luck on Major Burrows. Since I did the Comet Star first, I didn't think revisiting it was worthwhile.

SMG1 - Ghostly invisible doors first key skip

nemi43 2016-12-27 | Not sure if this is known. I haven't seen anyone use this method, and the closest I could find is one of Yoshifan's videos from 2010:

youtube.com/watch?v=AOxU1c-YpN4&t=1m7s

Landing on top the first door doesn't seem that difficult. I start by running against the invisible wall. I then hold left on the analog stick while mashing C to make sure Luigi is facing exactly left.

During the backflip, I hold up-right for a bit (12 frames in this video), and then hold right until Luigi is above the door.

I hold down just before landing on the door--it seems to be easier to stay on top a door if Luigi is running rather than standing still. After running for a bit, I mash A to jump--I try to mash because sometimes Luigi's running animation is interrupted by a brief falling animation, and this can cancel my input.

The most difficult part for me is landing on top the last door, but this part is the same for every method I've seen. On this door, I run for a bit again and then hold Z while mashing A to long-jump.

Recorded on Dolphin. Input display by Yoshifan:

github.com/yoshifan/ram-watch-cheat-engine

SMG1 - Dark Matter Plant clip

nemi43 2016-12-27 | Not sure if this is known.

This is a precise clip that saves about 4 seconds. It requires jumping between the wall and a kill-plane behind it. I use the ground texture as a visual cue to set up the long-jump.

Recorded on Dolphin. Input display by Yoshifan:

github.com/yoshifan/ram-watch-cheat-engine

Throwback GS2 IL in 13.60

nemi43 2016-10-15 | I tried reaching this Star with a triple jump + nunchuck spin, but I couldn't manage it even on emulator. Instead, I had to resort to triple jumping off the Whomp's foot just as the foot is starting to move forward.

The beginning route is from Sonicpacker's TAS:

youtube.com/watch?v=bM8_97MG_Wk

I left out the long jump into the slope jump because when I timed it, I reached the top sooner by avoiding the slope jump. No doubt this is due to my inferior human execution, but I'm OK with that.

Consistent Honeyhive C shortcut method?

nemi43 2016-10-06 | This is a variation of a shortcut used in Yoshifan's segmented run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFrRzW954RI&t=4m13s

This method seems at least somewhat RTA viable. Just don't hold up or spin too early--don't let Luigi touch the wall.

Recorded off of Dolphin--input display provided by Yoshifan's RAM watch scripts:

github.com/yoshifan/ram-watch-cheat-engine

Battle Belt ILs - All Stars

nemi43 2016-10-04 | After cropping the video, I forgot to restore the resolution to 720, so there is no 60 fps option; sorry about that.

Mini-Planet Mega-Run - 2:02.38

0:13 - There is some randomness to the Cinders' positioning. If the first 2 Cinders are too far away from the edge of the lava pools, I won't be able to defeat them quickly. They're usually cooperative in most Stars, but in the Comet Star, the first Cinder is almost always too far away.

0:28 - The Crabber bounce can fail depending on how the Crabbers behave. The Cyan Crabber can be too close to the Starshroom, or one of the Red Crabbers can get too close and interfere with the setup. Even if the Crabbers cooperate, the required trajectory of the bounce is pretty precise.

Using a Fire Flower can still be faster, but only if you defeat all 3 Jack O' Goombas while staying near your landing spot. This requires both good luck with the Crabbers (so the Fire Flower doesn't end too early on the Pumpkin Planet) and good fireball bounces on the Pumpkin Planet.

2:04 - Yoshifan found this Star clip. It's possible to get the Star by just crouching without spinning as well, but when I tested it, spinning allowed for an earlier Star grab.

2:30 - Snacktime for Gobblegut - 2:08.45

3:58 - I couldn't find many strat options for Fiery Gobblegut. The strat against normal Gobblegut doesn't seem to work because Luigi spawns slightly farther away and can't reach the first weak point in time.

The 1st phase isn't bad, but during the 2nd phase, I need to stop for a bit to keep Gobblegut's trajectory straight. If I keep running, Gobblegut will likely turn and approach Luigi from the side, which tends to cause the last weak point to be too high to reach.

5:08 - Green Star 1 - 36.08

6:08 - Green Star 2 - 1:29.15

8:04 - Green Star 3 - 2:01.16

10:33 - Mini-Planet Daredevil Run - 2:04.85

Good Egg 1 beginning options

nemi43 2016-08-28 | Run down-left, triple jump, and bounce off the Goomba - 22.63 seconds at leaving Launch Star - Rarely successful

Run down-left and triple jump - 23.73 s - Setting up the triple jump can be finicky

Run down, triple-jump and climb tower - 24.50 s - Triple jump a little less finicky

Long-jump left - 24.65 s - Can be difficult to get smooth long-jump landings

In-game time and input display provided by Yoshifan's RAM watch scripts:
github.com/yoshifan/ram-watch-cheat-engine

Battle Belt - Crabber skip vs Fire Flower

nemi43 2016-08-10 | I made this video because I wasn't sure how fast using the Fire Flower can be. In this comparison, bouncing off the Crabber was about 1.4 seconds faster in entering the Sling Star, but the Fire Flower was about .85 seconds faster on the Pumpkin planet.

Both strats can be faster, but I tried to be realistic in what would be feasible in a run. For the Fire Flower, the Crabber planet probably could've been better, but the Pumpkin planet was the fastest I got in my attempts. Also, it's possible to defeat all 3 Jack O' Goombas while staying near the landing spot, but this was even more difficult than getting good luck with the Crabbers. If you can get both both good luck with the Crabbers (so the Fire Flower doesn't end too early on the Pumpkin Planet) and good fireball bounces on the Pumpkin Planet, the Fire Flower can still be faster.

For setting up the Crabber bounce, I need to push the cyan Crabber farther away from the Starshroom. The 1st spin is mainly just to stun the Crabber--replacing this spin with a Star Bit shot might be an improvement. Also, depending on how the red Crabber on the right behaves, bouncing off of it instead can be faster.

Recorded off of Dolphin--input display provided by Yoshifan's RAM watch scripts:

github.com/yoshifan/ram-watch-cheat-engine

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speedruns - Fleet Glide (All Stars)

nemi43 2016-07-21 | Mario can talk to the Jibberjay a few frames earlier than Luigi. He is also a few frames faster in grabbing the Star. Fluzzard's speed doesn't seem to be affected by which character you use.

Using Yoshifan's RAM watch script, I tried to figure out how Fluzzard's velocity works.

github.com/yoshifan/ram-watch-cheat-engine

First, turning seems to have no effect on Fluzzard's forward velocity. The main thing that determines forward velocity is how far up or down you tilt the Wiimote.

Forward velocity seems to maximize when you tilt just enough to get the "boosting" animation. This animation is lost when Fluzzard starts to decelerate and isn't necessarily a direct indication of his absolute speed. In other words, if you lose the boosting animation, you shouldn't stray too far from the optimal speed if you regain the animation quickly. During my testing, it seemed like the most reliable way to maximize forward velocity was to tilt just enough so that Fluzzard alternates between the two animations.

Fluzzard's Wild Battlefield Glide - 1 m 20.53 s

0:25 - The main improvement over the previous Fluzzard WR by alexpenev is this cylindrical section. Turning farther to the right and making a sharper left turn into the tunnel entrance can save almost 0.3 seconds over the shorter right turn the previous WR made.

1:45 - Fastest Feathers in the Galaxy - 1 m 20.50 s

3:31 - Green Star 1 - 14.10 s

The easiest way to reach the Star is to tilt straight down. The exact angle doesn't matter much--as long as you touch the lower half of the Star, you should get the same in-game time.

According to nick14 on Cyberscore, tilting up just before touching the Star is faster.

http://www.cyberscore.me.uk/chart/79339

When I timed it on emulator, this saved 0.04 seconds of in-game time. The precise angle and timing of when you tilt up doesn't seem to matter.

Testing further on emulator, I found tilting from left-to-right (or right-to-left) can save an additional 0.01 seconds of in-game time. Since this is less than a frame, whether this saves time or not might depend on the value of the in-game timer. Also, I saved the 0.01 seconds only when I touched the top-center or top-right corner of the Star.

I don't know how much further this Star can be pushed. I know I lost 1 frame on dismissing the last speech bubble, so 14.0x should be possible.

4:10 - Green Star 2 - 54.21 s

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speedruns - Boo Moon 1, H, GS1, GS3

nemi43 2016-06-22 | Silver Stars Pop-Up - 1 m 20.56 s

On the first planet, long-jumping seems to be faster only at the beginning and just before the Launch Star. I expected long-jumping to be faster after the door as well, but when I timed it, just running was a few frames faster.

0:40 - The movement controls during this long-jump are awkward. My consistency method is to start by holding right, and then quickly rotate to hold up and long-jump immediately thereafter.

1:44 - The Star in the Sinking Swamp - 57.38 s

3:06 - Green Star 1 - 1 m 6.15 s

4:36 - Green Star 3 - 1 m 8.81 s

5:40 - The ground-pound out of the long-jump isn't actually an instant ground-pound. For some reason, when I spin and press Z at the same time over the switch, I often get a cancelled spin. I can then do a ground-pound by simply pressing Z again.

Briefly stand on a Rhomp

nemi43 2016-06-06 | I tried messing around with this glitch in hopes of finding an easier way to get pushed by the Rhomps, but I couldn't make it work. Even with frame advance on emulator, I couldn't find a moment in which I had control over Luigi while he was on a Rhomp.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speedruns - Slipsand Green Stars

nemi43 2016-06-06 | Green Star 1 - 39.25 s

Long-jumping across the sand can be frustrating because you can easily get a normal jump or even a backflip for seemingly no reason. From what I can tell, the best ways to prevent losing your long-jumps are to not bend your trajectory too much and to press A before landing so you spend minimal time touching the sand. If you lose your long-jumps, the easiest way to restart them is to repress Z while walking for 1 or 2 seconds and then press A.

The most obvious path to take across the first planet is along the inside of the curves. However, it's possible to long-jump completely over the stone segments to maintain the speed you get from the flowing sand, but this requires angling the long-jump towards the outside of the curves. From my testing, it seems jumping over only the second stone segment saves time, which makes sense since the planet starts to bend the other way after that point.

0:24 - The timing of this block depends on how long the intro plays and the path you take on the first planet. Luckily, with the route I use on the first planet, I get the timing I want by almost entirely skipping the intro.

1:02 - Green Star 2 - 53.13 s

1:32 - It's possible to travel through this section by long-jumping straight across the left side of the planet, long-jumping over the pit from the Comet Medal, and then wall-jumping off the side of the path. When I timed it, though, long-jumping across the right side was about 30 frames faster in reaching the moving block.

1:54 - Getting the correct angle towards the Star can be a little precise. My consistency method is to start by holding down, quickly alternate between down-left and down 3 times immediately upon landing on the slide, and then keep holding down until reaching the Star. From testing with save states on emulator, I didn't lose any time with this method compared to holding the correct angle the entire way.

2:19 - Green Star 3 - 1 m 24 s

3:27 - I spent a lot of time trying different methods of getting pushed by the Rhomps, but I couldn't find a consistent way to do it.

The location in which I got the Star is about average for my attempts. In my best attempt during practice, I got the Star one Rhomp earlier, but that happened only once.

4:06 - Evidence it might not be possible to get pushed very far by a Rhomp.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speed runs - Gravity Gauntlet 1 & C

nemi43 2016-05-01 | The Grand Star took far longer to get than I would've liked. It took a while to find consistency methods for the first part of the run, and double lock and the Bowser fight killed a lot of decent runs. The run I got has a few problems I could nitpick about, but my goal was 2:49:xx, and I'm satisfied with it.

Breaking into Bowser's Castle - 2:49:43

I've seen several different strats for the beginning, but Pottoww's strat of using the fireball was the fastest I could find by about 10 frames.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6vNcBEaIdg&t=10s

0:12 - There is a thin line of lava below this platform that acts like a wall of lava. Hitting this part of the lava is slightly faster than long-jumping into the wall to the right. It also makes landing on the thin path a bit easier.

After hitting the lava, I hold up-right. A bit after the 3rd hit, I hold right, and then hold left once Luigi has traveled far enough. (You can tell when I start holding left by looking at Luigi's facing direction.) Depending on Luigi's trajectory, I also sometimes needed to hold slightly up-left or down-left before landing on the path. Also, I didn't want to land too far left because that often caused Luigi to fall through the floor and die.

0:22 - You can run past this Goomba by staying along the near edge of the path while entering the 2D section. The Dry Bones can be avoided in the same way, but I wasn't close enough to the edge to do that. Doing a spin-jump is an easy backup method that doesn't lose much time.

The platforms and Firebars before the Launch Star aren't in good positions, but I couldn't find a way to adjust their timing.

0:33 - No, double lock is not consistent. The most consistent method I could find was to hold up after landing on the platform, long-jump onto the meteorite, and ground-pound just inside the white lines.

Backflipping onto the meteorite is slightly faster than long-jumping. My method with a backflip is to hold down and slightly left during the camera-cancel, do a backflip, rotate counter-clockwise to hold up, spin when the top of Luigi's head is facing the camera, and ground-pound when his shadow is over the white lines. Yes, it's complicated, but it was the best I could find for improving my chances of success.

Also, I couldn't get double lock to work on the top 2 locks. It seems to work only with the bottom lock and either of the top locks.

1:30 - The best way to ground-pound these meteorites is to do a full jump a bit after they start rising. If you jump too late, the jump can be affected awkwardly by the gravity, and Luigi won't be able to ground-pound. This is usually how the Bowser fight killed my runs.

3:22 - Gravity Star Speed Run - 31.33

3:22 - I let the intro play almost to the end to adjust the positioning of the platforms and Firebars at the end of the level.

3:55 - To long-jump over all the Firebars, I hold down-left at the beginning of the long-jump, hold up-left when getting the Stopwatch, and hold up-right for the last part of the rotation. This long-jump seemed to be most consistent when I started it as late as possible.

4:00 - It's also possible to reach the Star by damage boosting off a Firebar, but using a wall-jump seems to be a bit faster.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speed runs - Honeyhop 1, GS1, GS2

nemi43 2016-03-21 | Most of the strats in the first half of this Galaxy are explained in the description of my previous run of GS1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0U1r_...

The Sweetest Silver Stars - 1m 17.05s

0:19 - I need to ensure Luigi is facing left when on this swing. The reason is explained in this video by Yoshifan, where his demonstration with trampolines applies to Floaty Fluffs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbE1N...

The direction Luigi faces after releasing a Floaty Fluff is determined by the direction he is facing on the swing. I want Luigi to face backwards after releasing the Floaty Fluff because he gains more horizontal speed that way.

0:30 - From the highest ledge, it's actually a few frames faster to reach the Floaty Fluff with a couple of backflips, but Luigi's speed after grabbing the Floaty Fluff seems a bit faster if he grabs it after a triple-jump. Overall, I can reach the second planet (and Green Star 1) a few frames earlier with a triple-jump.

0:35 - I can release the Floaty Fluff early because Luigi can reach the next planet if he falls backwards. If he is facing forwards during the fall, he'll gain almost no distance at all.

It's also possible to reach the next planet by doing a homing ground-pound off of the nearby bee, but that seems to be a few frames slower than using the Floaty Fluff.

0:59 - I'm not sure why Luigi gets extra height off this ledge grab--I'm guessing it's because the cliff isn't exactly vertical. I simply hold the analog stick towards the ledge to get the extra height. It also seems to help to be as far away from the back wall as possible during the wall-jumps.

1:45 - Green Star 1 - 32.73s

This is an improvement of a couple seconds over my previous run of this Star. The main improvements are delaying the jump off the first swing and releasing the Floaty Fluff early.

2:45 - Green Star 2 - 54.91s

3:33 - The backflip after the Fling Flower went too far to the right, but I don't think it cost too much time. My goal for this Star was sub-55, so I decided to take this.

3:38 - Normally, the Queen Bee talks to you as soon as you land at the top of this planet, but you can avoid the dialogue by jumping as soon as Luigi touches the ground. The dialogue trigger is pretty large, and Luigi needs to be almost directly under the Queen Bee to avoid it.

3:42 - The approach to the Star involves jumping off the Queen Bee's stinger, and then wall-jumping off her abdomen. This can be tricky because the hitbox of the stinger is pretty small, and the camera angle provides no depth perception. It's easy to miss the jump off the stinger or get an awkward angle off the wall-jump.

Hypothetical Good Egg 2 shortcut

nemi43 2016-01-19 | I'm uploading this in case somebody someday finds some magical way to escape the gravity of the first planet. I've been intermittently messing around with this idea for the past several months--mainly trying to slingshot Luigi with the Pull Stars, but also trying to reset the cooldown of the spin with a Pull Star and also trying to find a spot where the mega-sideflip glitch might work. In the end, the gravity of the planet is just too large to overcome.

In this video, I spin 8 times to escape the planet. 8 spins gain the height of roughly 2 backflips, so I'm not even close to reaching the edge of the gravity. Not even the co-op midair jump can help me here.

I've also tried shortcutting to the transparent capsule planet, but I couldn't get that to work either.

SMG1 2P shortcut - Dusty Dune Star Chips skip

nemi43 2016-01-11 | This is a rather difficult trick that can save about 15~20 seconds. To be honest, I don't think it's worth doing in an RTA, but it might be viable for an IL (don't know if people actually do ILs with 2P). I got the idea to try this after watching this glitch video:

youtube.com/watch?v=qC-ypi33wMY&t=7m21s

This shortcut relies on the Dry Bones being lined up properly with the Koopa Troopa. In general, it's best if the Dry Bones is as close to the lower-left edge of the planet as possible (as viewed from the initial landing onto the planet).

The Dry Bones can move around randomly. As you're flying towards the planet, if you notice the Dry Bones is in a good position, holding it in place with the 2P pointer as you land can help.

Be sure to collect the first Star Chip before doing the homing ground pound. Otherwise, the ground pound will likely home in on the Star Chip instead of the Koopa Troopa.

Before doing the homing ground pound, I need to wait a bit for the planet to lower in order to reach the outer rim. If I ground pound too early, the planet will still be too high, and I'll fall short of the rim.

Once on the rim, it's possible to get to the other side of the planet, but I couldn't find a way to get past the quicksand.

This shortcut can also be done with Mario.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speed runs - Stone Cyclone (All Stars)

nemi43 2015-10-19 | I decided to work on this Galaxy because I wanted to see if there is some way to get a boost off of the Tox Boxes. I quickly found that it doesn't seem possible to get a good boost with the usual jumps because it looks like the game cancels out your momentum whenever the Tox Box stops moving, even if you've already jumped.

However, the momentum cancellation doesn't occur with a slope jump. You can get a slope jump by simply waiting for the Tox Box to flip over far enough before you jump.

Star 1 - 30.78s

I don't boost off a Tox Box on this Star, but there is a new shortcut from the 3rd Silver Star to the 4th. By jumping off of a Tox Box, Luigi can reach the 4th Silver Star directly from the 3rd without long-jumping to the Star's spawn point first.

I let the intro play to manipulate the timings of 3 objects: the first Tox Box, the small, rectangular block in the middle of the level, and the Tox Box after the 3rd Silver Star. The first Tox Box just needs to be out of the way. The rectangular block needs to be under the Comet Medal so Luigi can reach it. The next Tox Box should be far enough away to give me time to get the 3rd Silver Star but close enough that I can immediately jump onto it after getting the Silver Star.

0:17 - I do a backflip instead of a long-jump off this block because if I did a long-jump, Luigi would lose the speed boost once the block stops moving. For some reason, this doesn't happen with a backflip. Interestingly, if you long-jump in the direction opposite of the block's motion, Luigi will get a speed boost when the block stops moving.

0:19 - Ideally, this Tox Box would be a little closer so I don't have to wait before jumping onto it, but I couldn't find a way to manipulate its timing without altering the timing of the first Tox Box and the rectangular block in the middle of the level.

1:04 - Comet - 19.80s

1:12 - The timing of the jump off of the Tox Box affects the speed of the boost. If I jump too late, the boost will be slower, Luigi won't travel as far, and he'll get stunned when landing. It seems the ideal timing is to jump as soon as it's possible to get a slope jump.

1:50 - Green Star 1 - 6.73s

I use the same boost to get Green Star 1, but I want a slightly slower boost because otherwise Luigi will fly completely over the Star.

The intro says "Green Star 2" because I was attempting that Star when I got this run.

2:23 - Green Star 2 - 12.61s

3:02 - This is just a demo run to show the closest I could get to directly boosting to the Comet Star. If you look at the timer at the bottom of the screen, you can see Luigi breaks the crystal about 4 seconds later compared to the actual run. If there is a way to boost directly to the crystal, this strat might be faster.

If you're curious, I do this boost by tapping north-northeast on the analog stick before slope jumping off of the Tox Box. The time of this run was 24.13.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speed runs - Clockwork Ruins (All Stars)

nemi43 2015-08-31 | Time for Adventure - 1m 29.28s

For the first planet, I considered mainly 2 alternative timings: one where I let the intro play out a bit and cut the fly-in short (as I did in this run), and another where I cut the intro short and let the fly-in play out. The difference is mainly in the positioning of the 3rd set of platforms. The two timings ended up being about 2 frames within each other, so I used the one that I found more consistent.

The last set of platforms could possibly be oriented in a way that allows for long-jumping into the Launch Star from one of the outer arms, but I couldn't find a way to get this orientation without making the earlier platforms worse.

0:28 - When landing next to the cage, I crouch as soon as Luigi lands and turn around while crouching. Without crouching, Luigi would press against the cage and would not be able to backflip.

0:54 - To long-jump past these rolling stones, I jump along the very edge of the ramp. If I feel like Luigi isn't close enough to the edge, I can adjust by briefly tilting down-right during a long-jump. The stones can push Luigi off the edge while long-jumping past them, so I briefly tilt up-right while jumping past a stone.

1:06 - This Octoomba shoots a stone just as Luigi lands beside it. With quick enough movement, Luigi can jump over the stone before it hits; alternatively, the Octoomba can be stunned with a Star Bit. However, I found neither approach to be consistent, and given the other difficult parts of this Galaxy, I decided to play it safe and land a bit to the side of the Octoomba in order to avoid getting hit.

Also, the second peg can be skipped if Luigi grabs the first peg with enough rightward momentum. I failed to skip it in this Star, but I managed to skip it in Green Star 3 (5:27). Skipping this peg saves about 10 frames.

1:21 - I described these diagonal wall-jumps in another video, but basically I spin while tilting the analog stick somewhat parallel to the wall before each wall-jump. The hardest part is the second wall-jump because I want this wall-jump as far away from the back wall as possible--if it's too close, I don't have enough room to do a spin before the last wall-jump.

Using nunchuck spins and making sure to spin at the peak of each jump make this trick somewhat more feasible.

1:56 - The Ledge Hammer Trap - 21.91s

On the first planet, I use a different timing from the other Stars to better orient the 3rd set of platforms for the long-jump into the Launch Star. This timing also makes the first 2 sets of platforms about 10 frames faster, but I didn't use it for the other Stars because it makes the positioning of the 3rd set of platforms worse for reaching the upper Launch Star.

2:22 - While triple-jumping up to the Star, I mash the A button to make Luigi do a jump off the edge of the upper path. I'm not sure why this works, but I'm guessing Luigi is trying to grab the ledge but is interrupted by the movement of the path--pressing A during this interruption might be what causes Luigi to jump.

2:48 - Green Star 1 - 10.55s

3:00 - Wall-jumping to the Star seems to be about 0.1 seconds faster than doing a backflip + spin to the Star. Without the wall-jump, I needed to wait a bit for the platform to rise before the backflip.

3:24 - Green Star 2 - 30.21s

3:50 - Letting the intro play causes the wall on the second planet to push out earlier.

4:21 - Green Star 3 - 1m 32.30s

5:41 - This is mostly identical to the first Star except the end. Jumping up to the top of the planet seems to be about 4 seconds faster than hitting the ground-pound switch and reaching the Star with the rolling stones as intended.

6:20 - The Adventure of the Purple Coins - 1m 26.20s

7:44 - The jumps up to the Star are somewhat precise, so using nunchuck spins and making sure to spin at the peak of each jump are helpful.

Useless cage clip in Clockwork

nemi43 2015-08-08 | As you might have expected, clipping into the Luma's cage in Clockwork does nothing because the Luma's dialogue isn't enabled until the cage is opened with the ground-pound switch. It is possible to clip into the cage without changing the gravity, but it's much more difficult. I also checked if it might be possible to hit the ground-pound switch with a precise homing or regular ground-pound without changing the gravity, but I couldn't get that to work either.

This clip is possible because the stone wall around the perimeter of the planet isn't solid on the other side. The brick wall that covers the interior of the planet extends a bit into the stone wall, so you can stand on the brick wall while still in the stone wall after switching the gravity.

The Luma's cage is solid on all sides except for the side covered by the brick wall, so you can enter the cage by going through the brick wall from the other side.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speed runs - Fiery Flotilla 1, C, GS1, GS2

nemi43 2015-06-17 | There were a couple of reasons to update the runs of this Galaxy.

1. To incorporate Yoshifan's route of the beginning section.

2. A modified Gobblegut strat that saves a couple seconds over my previous run of the Comet Star.

Star 1 - 1m 10.28s

1:45 - Comet Star - 37.61s

2:45 - Green Star 1 - 14.83s

3:26 - Green Star 2 - 15.90s

Super Mario Galaxy 2 IL speed runs: Shiverburn 1, GS1, GS2, GS3

nemi43 2015-06-01 | Star 1 - 1m 31.08s

I spun slightly too early when entering the first Launch Star, but I'm OK with that. I was afraid I'd need to spend a lot of time grinding out this Star because there is some randomness in the last hit on the boss, but I was lucky enough to get this run within the first several tries.

I'm still not sure if it's faster to lose or keep the Cloud Suit on the second planet. The Cloud Suit makes ice skating slightly slower, but hitting the lava to lose the Cloud Suit takes extra time. When I timed it out, losing the Cloud Suit was a measly 2 frames faster in reaching the end of the ice skating section, but because my timing tests weren't executed perfectly, there is some uncertainty in the timing measurements. Nevertheless, I decided not to worry about it and keep the Cloud Suit because ground-pounding onto safe ground is actually more consistent than ground-pounding onto the lava.

1:54 - Green Star 1 - 20.50s

I couldn't manage to get sub-20 on this. I tried to find a way to reach all the way to the ground-pound switch, but I wasn't able to without making an extra long-jump or cloud. This run was actually one of the closest I got to the switch.

2:38 - Green Star 2 - 22.65s

I couldn't figure out the angle needed to grab the Star with a regular ground-pound, so I just settled for the homing ground-pound.

3:24 - Green Star 3 - 40.21s

I let the intro play out a bit to make the second Octoomba move out of the way.

SMG2: World 6 test run

nemi43 2015-05-20 | Another 2:24 saved for a total of 9:52. By SRL timing, this run would be about 3:01:38. By in-game time, it'd be about 3:07:58.

Splits:

Melty Monster 1: -11.9
Melty Monster H: -8.8 (-20.7)
Melty Monster 2: -4.6 (-25.3)
Clockwork Ruins H: -15.2 (-40.5)
Throwback 1: -9.1 (-49.6)
Throwback 2: +1.7 (-47.9)
Flash Black 1: -10.7 (-58.6)
Slimy Spring 1: -1.4 (-1:00)
Haunty Halls C: -2 (-1:02)
Beat Block C: -5 (-1:07)
Gravity Gauntlet C: -15 (-1:22)
Starshine Beach C: -3 (-1:25)
Throwback C: 0 (-1:25)
Flash Black C: -9 (-1:34)
Galaxy Generator: -50 (-2:24)

Melty Monster 1: 1m 26.05s

1:03 - This weird long-jump consistently gets me past the first few Magmaws. I start by jumping down-left, and then hold left soon after the jump starts. Before I land, I hold up-left to avoid making an unnecessary orbit around the planet Mario lands on.

For some reason, breaking the crystal holding the Star can be difficult depending on where I hit it. I used to hit it from the right side, but this caused my spins to randomly miss. Hitting it from the left seems much more consistent.

2:42 - Melty Monster H: 1m 9.35s

3:09 - There is actually a new speed trick in the bowling mini-game. Pottoww told me his idea of using the Rock Mushroom's midair jump to skip each ramp--this would let Mario keep rolling without stopping. Getting more than 1 midair jump is really difficult, so I tried to see if there might be another way to skip the ramps...and it turns out there is another way.

By approaching a ramp after doing a jump + spin, the ramp won't activate during the duration of the spin. This lets you retain control while rolling up the ramp, and if you jump near the very top of the ramp, Mario can reach the next platform. This is somewhat risky because if you jump too early or too late, Mario will fall off the stage.

I'm pretty sure it's possible to use this trick on every ramp, but I do it only on some of the ramps for consistency. Doing a jump to set up the trick can make it harder to hit some of the pins, and landing without stopping can make it harder to pass the obstacles on some of the platforms.

Also, unlike in Melty Monster 2, the finite duration of the Rock Mushroom is still in effect, so it doesn't seem possible to roll completely to the end of the level without stopping.

4:30 - Melty Monster 2: 53.35s

5:20 - Rolling across this platform might not look consistent, but it never failed during an attempt or practice. On the previous platform, I jump about 2 tiles before the edge and then hold up-right before Mario lands.

6:18 - Clockwork Ruins H: 1m 25.78s

This coin collecting route is a combination of Pottoww and Yoshifan's routes. This normally lets me avoid collecting coins on the last set of rotating platforms. However, I missed a coin during a triple jump early in the level, so I had to collect an extra one at the end.

6:33 - Instead of a long-jump here, 2 backflips can be used to stomp on the Octoomba. I use backflips if I lose time earlier in the level and the platforms are further ahead in their cycles.

6:40 - If I lose time earlier in the level, I won't be able to drop onto this coin. In that case, I just run around the platform instead of jumping over it.

6:46 - Entering first-person view here was just to advance the timing of the last set of platforms.

8:49 - Throwback 1: 1m 31.11s

9:05 - These couple of wall-jumps took me a while to figure out, and I'm still not sure if I want to attempt them in a full run. As soon as I jump, I hold down-right, and then I hold slightly more to the right during the spin. After the first wall-jump, I hold up-left. This does not always work, and Mario usually falls to the very bottom when it fails.

11:28 - Throwback 2: 58.83s

I messed up the long-jump to the last Silver Star, which cost about 5 seconds.

14:03 - Flash Black 1: 1m 10.05s

16:20 - Slimy Spring 1: 2m 10.86s

19:44 - Haunty Halls C: 31.51s

21:18 - Beat Block C: 40.25s

23:07 - Gravity Gauntlet C: 44.05s

23:20 - For some reason, doing a spin before hitting the lava wall makes this shortcut a lot more consistent. Without the spin, Mario will often fall through the platform and die after landing by the Whomps.

24:48 - Starshine Beach C : 38.01s

26:28 - Throwback C: 54.96s

28:21 - Flash Black C: 51.15s

30:51 - Galaxy Generator

31:19 - I tried the TAS route on this planet, but it looks like it might be a little slower for Mario because it's difficult to make some of the jumps without an extra spin.

There are a couple of mistakes in this Galaxy. First, I did an extra spin near the end of the Spin Drill planet, and that prevented me from getting the elevator cycle I wanted on the next planet. This cost a few seconds.

Second, I missed one of Bowser's meteor cycles, and that cost about 20 seconds. If it weren't for this mistake, I could've saved over a minute on Galaxy Generator.

SMG2: Small time saver in Clockwork Ruins 1

nemi43 2015-03-12 | This is a rather difficult trick that can save about 5 seconds as Luigi, and it's probably worth doing only in IL runs. This requires a series of sideways or diagonal wall-jumps. The easiest way to do these are to spin as you hold sideways or diagonal on the analog stick.just before a wall-jump.

This can also be done as Mario, but it saves only a couple seconds and it's much more difficult.

SMG2: World 5 test run

nemi43 2015-03-03 | Another 1:36 saved for a total of 7:28.

Splits:

Hightail Falls C: -10.7 (-10.7)
Boulder Bowl L: -21.2 (-31.9)
Fiery Flotilla C: -10.7 (-42.6)
Space Storm 1: -3.4 (-46.0)
Space Storm 2: -8.1 (-54.1)
Shiverburn H: -1.7 (-55.8)
Shiverburn 1: -21.2 (-1:17)
Upside Dizzy 1: -5 (-1:22) (Lost about 5 seconds)
Upside Dizzy H: -6 (-1:28)
Boo Moon H: -3 (-1:31)
Shiverburn C: -2 (-1:33)
Boom Bunker 1: -3 (-1:36)

0:05 - Hightail Falls 1: 1m 6.26s

1:52 - Boulder Bowl L: 50.76s

4:06 - Fiery Flotilla C: 1m 4.61s

5:52 - Space Storm 1: 1m 10.71s

6:06 - Getting this long-jump under the electric fence is tricky. I need to release the analog stick as soon as the long-jump starts, and then hold right once Mario is under the electricity.

Similarly, when getting the Comet Medal, I release the analog stick during the long-jump.

8:04 - Space Storm 2: 29.10s

9:30 - Shiverburn H: 1m 29.21s

11:40 - Shiverburn 1: 1m 46.11s

14:37 - Upside Dizzy 1: 55.05s

I messed up the beginning, and then made it worse during the recovery. I lost about 5 seconds here.

15:07 - Thanks to Yoshifan for the route on the second half of this Star. This route is smooth and consistent, and consistency is important because this section is so timing-sensitive.

16:20 - Upside Dizzy H: 1m 0.08s

18:26 - Boo Moon H: 1m 4.13s

20:36 - Shiverburn C: 35.53s

22:12 - Boom Bunker 1: 2m 14.11s

22:59 - The long-jump to the top of this planet is a little subtle. You need to start this long-jump a little bit away from the edge of the platform. If you're too close to the edge of the platform when starting the long-jump, it won't travel as far and will fail to reach the top of the planet.

SMG2: Boom Bunker stun cancel

nemi43 2015-02-02 | This is a glitch that I initially hoped would lead to a Boom Bunker quick kill, but it ended up saving less than a second, depending on how quickly you can do this fight the normal way.

When Mario ground-pounds Bowser Jr., he bounces off the top of the tower and falls to the ground. There are 2 different animations for this: the usual animation occurs when you just ground-pound Bowser Jr. normally. There is another tumbling animation that Mario does if you wait until Bowser Jr. spins the top of the tower before doing a ground-pound.

During this tumbling animation, if Mario hits the side of a cloud, his tumbling stops and you regain control. I haven't gotten this to work with the normal animation: Mario doesn't seem to interact with a cloud no matter how he falls through one.

My initial hope was that this could be used to get another hit on Bowser Jr. before the final phase of the fight starts. Unfortunately, the cutscene starts too soon for me to reach Bowser Jr. after the 2nd hit. I've tried placing a cloud as close as possible to the tower, but it looks like this glitch doesn't work if the cloud is too close to Mario. Also, I don't know if Bowser Jr.'s hitbox is even active after the 2nd hit.

The first part of this video shows this glitch being used on the 1st and 2nd hits. I suspect if you do these 2 hits optimally, doing it the normal way would be slightly faster. With the more consistent single-segment method I use, though, using this glitch saves less than 1 second :P

The second part of the video shows how close I can get to ground-pounding Bowser Jr. again after the 2nd hit.

SMG2: Boo Moon 1 shortcut

nemi43 2015-01-26 | This saves a little under 10 seconds, but it's a little tricky because the movement controls are awkward. When the gravity changes, tilting East on the control stick will make Mario move towards the top of the screen. However, after Mario runs a few steps, the movement controls change so that you need to hold NNE to move towards the top.

My consistency method is to start on the part of the snake block that is closer to the camera and to stand near the left edge. After the gravity changes, I first tap E, and then hold N for the long-jump to the Launch Star.

With this shortcut, I can get about 1:27 on this Star. Since we do Boo Moon's Hidden Star, we can skip the intro to cut about 15 seconds. However, this Star also triggers a Mailtoad event, which costs about 8 seconds, so the "effective" time of this Star is about 1:20.

This isn't short enough to make this Star a lock for the any% w/ Banktoad route, but it does cost about the same as Supermassive's Hidden Star. So if you prefer, you can do Boo Moon 1 instead of Supermassive H, depending on which Star you can execute more optimally.

SMG2: Shiverburn 1 full-game run strats (1:47.03)

nemi43 2015-01-23 | I mainly wanted to show the Prince Pikante fight, but I like this Star so much, I ended up recording the entire thing.

0:10 - The route to the 2nd planet is from datteo's IL run. It seems to save about a couple seconds over returning to the starting point.

On the 2nd planet, I intentionally get hit by the lava. I want to lose the Cloud Suit before the 3rd planet because ice skating as Cloud Mario is awkward and feels slow. The ground-pound sometimes lands on a platform, in which case I long-jump downwards and land on the lava before getting the Comet Medal.

1:06 - This Prince Pikante strat saves about 10 seconds, but it's not 100% consistent. I think I get it a little over half the time. Pikante shoots 2 coconuts at random times, and the timing of Mario's spins don't always match the timing of the coconuts.

The location of the last coconut is random. It usually falls far from Pikante, but it can sometimes be near the middle of the planet. It's possible to miss this last coconut, but it's not too big a time loss since Pikante shoots another coconut after 2 more attacks.

Incidentally, if you can predict where both coconuts fall, it's possible to hit both before they touch the ground. However, I haven't found a way to locate the coconuts early enough to do this.

1:44.xx is possible with this route. I lost some time because the ending was sloppy.

EarthBound stairs glitch speed run in 1:22:55

nemi43 2015-01-20 | 1:05:09 SDA time
1:06:17 SRL time

EarthBound runners have recently expanded the use of luck manipulation, and this route has gotten much closer to the TAS route. First, AndyPerfect incorporated the TAS strat against Ness's Nightmare:

youtube.com/watch?v=jVLRp9hzV8I

Then, __sdfg replicated almost the entire TAS route in Onett:

youtube.com/watch?v=lQJImh-U6UE

This run is still a WIP because the route probably hasn't been settled yet.

SMG2: World 4 test run

nemi43 2014-10-13 | Another 2:30 saved for a total of 5:52. Thanks to Yoshifan for much of the improvements in this World.

Splits:

Sweet Mystery 1: -13/-13
Flipsville 1: -43/-56
Flipsville 2: -12/-1:08
Sweet Mystery C: -16/-1:24
Flipsville C: -3/-1:27
Supermassive 1: -8/-1:35
Supermassive H: -6/-1:41
Chompworks 1: -2/-1:43
Chompworks 2: -8/-1:51
Starshine Beach 1: -10/-2:01 (10 seconds of mistakes)
Starshine Beach 2: -12/-2:13
Chompworks C: +2/-2:11
Gravity Gauntlet: -19/-2:30

Sweet Mystery 1 (0:42.85)

The bounce off of the first berry isn't exactly consistent, but there is no risk in going for it. My method is to start with a sideflip facing straight left, and then quickly turning the analog stick straight upwards before shaking and starting a flutter.

It's also possible to bounce off of the second berry and continue fluttering to the Star, but this requires a very precise trajectory and I almost never get it.

1:50 - Flipsville 1 (1:18.35)

4:26 - Flipsville 2 (1:03.51)

6:23 - Sweet Mystery C (1:10.51)

I usually don't do well on this Star, and this run was no exception. With a clean run, I can get about 1:08, which still isn't very good.

8:41 - Flipsville C (1:08.13)

I took a slightly different route here by delaying the collection of the coins in the second chamber. From what I can tell, this saves about a second over collecting these coins as soon as possible.

Before collecting the last coin, I hold left while shaking the Wiimote to touch the Star as soon as possible. However, it's possible to miss the Star by being too far to the left when collecting the last coin.

10:37 - Supermassive 1 (1:28.58)

At the beginning, rotating the camera manipulates the timing of the Thwomps and prevents them from blocking the path or crushing Mario.

Rotating the camera during the long-jump shortcut makes it easier to tell when to spin--I think I first saw the Japanese runner NEG_Taro rotate the camera here.

12:56 - Supermassive H (1:37.05)

Yoshifan pointed out these are actually called "Hidden" Stars and not "Secret" Stars, lol.

15:29 - Chompworks 1 (2:04.71)

Thanks to DarkEmperor for pointing out it's possible to run up the very edge of the ramp. Running up the edge prevents Mario from losing speed and makes his jumps work normally.

18:44 - Chompworks 2 (0:53.63)

On the last planet, landing on the first elevator is actually a little difficult. The elevators are rendered and moving while you're on the starting planet, so it's important to get through the starting planet as quickly as possible. If you're even a little slow on the starting planet, Mario likely won't reach the elevator in time to land on top of it.

To make sure I don't lose time on the starting planet, I get Mario up to full running speed before long-jumping onto the ramp. This ensures Mario runs up the ramp at full speed.

Getting a land-cancel on the initial landing into the Galaxy can also help you reach the elevator in time. I was lucky enough to get a land-cancel in this run, so the video doesn't show how tight the timing is.

The method I used to climb the last planet was just something I was experimenting with. It's possible to reach the elevator with the original method, where you long-jump through the Spring Mushroom and onto the first platform.

20:48 - Starshine Beach 1 (1:37.45)

My flutter towards the tower was misaimed. I can usually reach the top of the tower without needing to adjust, but I misjudged Yoshi's angle at the beginning of the flutter.

I also missed the last Silver Star, so I lost about 10 seconds total here.

23:28 - Starshine Beach 2 (0:37.08)

I made a couple of mistakes here, and I was lucky to reach the top of the tower on the first try. First, my approach to the first cloud was a little crooked--I should've approached farther from the left. Second, my spin before the wall-jump hit the tower--my first mistake might have led to the second because I started my jumps a little too close to the tower.

My consistency method for climbing the tower is to release the analog stick after triple-jumping off the first cloud--this seems to prevent Mario from being too close or too far away from the tower during the spin (usually, lol).

25:19 - Chompworks C (0:53.20)

I lost time here because of something I hadn't noticed: causing the clones to appear soon after the first Golden Chomp breaks causes the next Golden Chomp to appear about a second earlier. This was already known by Packattack when he did his IL run, but I overlooked it. I think I accidentally did this in my PB without realizing it.

27:11 - Gravity Gauntlet 1 (3:50.40)

Despite the new shortcut here, I think it's still worthwhile to get the Comet Medal. The Comet Star can be done in about 45~50 seconds with the new shortcut, while it previously took about 1:00~1:10.

The controls are a little wonky while running on top of the tower before the shortcut. I need to quickly turn the analog stick down-right before Mario will turn in the direction I want him to go.

Megahammer: Bullet Bill storage method

nemi43 2014-09-28 | Thanks to Pottoww for finding this.

Normally, if Yoshi has a Bullet Bill in his mouth before a cutscene starts, the Bullet Bill gets despawned after the cutscene. However, it looks like if another Bullet Bill is nearby when a cutscene starts, the Bullet Bill in Yoshi's mouth remains.

One way to exploit this is to lure 3 Bullet Bills from one side of Megahammer's back. Next, run as close as possible to the Bullet Bills on the other side of Megahammer's back before grabbing the Bullet Bills following you. After launching 2 Bullet Bills at Megahammer, grab the 3rd and keep it until the final phase of the fight, and launch it as soon as the final phase starts. This saves about 2~3 seconds.

I'm guessing running to the other side of Megahammer works because it brings you close enough to the Bullet Bills to prevent them from being despawned before the cutscene starts. (In general, this game despawns many types of objects that are too far off-camera.) While this video is from the Comet Star with the cutscene skipped, this method works the same way on the main Star without skipping the cutscene.

SMG2: New Flipsville 1 route

nemi43 2014-09-16 | The path to the Comet Medal is the same as Yoshifan's route.

0:02 - Spin soon after Mario's body starts rotating right-side up. If the spin is too late, Mario won't have as much speed after the spin. In the worst case, Mario won't reach the second planet.

0:07 - For some reason, a part of the roof isn't solid, and Mario can stand on the flat surface under the roof. It's not difficult to land on this part of the roof either.

0:10 - Aim the backflip so that Mario lands near the edge of the roof. To get the optimal bounce, you want to land a bit away from the edge but still pretty close to it. You can use Mario's shadow as a guide. I just hold up on the analog stick during the backflip and until Mario reaches the boss planet.

0:28 - Reaching the boss planet is pretty difficult and requires getting a near optimal bounce off the roof. A much safer strategy is to aim for the Toad Brigade ship instead. To reach the ship, just make the backflip reach farther away--you still need to land near the edge of the roof, but you don't need an optimal bounce.

By reaching the boss planet, I can get a time of 1:19.xx. By aiming for the ship, I can get 1:26.xx.

SMG2: Another Gravity Gauntlet shortcut

nemi43 2014-08-14 | This isn't easy, but it seems pretty simple:

1. I hold right while long-jumping into the lava wall, and I keep holding right until Mario falls off the stage.

2. Soon after falling off the stage, Mario's gravity briefly reverses. About 0.5 seconds after this reversal, I hold left to slow Mario down--if I don't hold left, Mario's speed causes him to fly completely off the stage. Holding left either too soon or too late can cause death.

3. Once Mario turns upside-down, I hold up-left.

For some reason, Mario sometimes dies even after landing in the area with the Whomps. I still don't know what causes this, and it's the main reason I'm unsure about attempting this in a full-game run.

This shortcut makes getting the Comet Medal more costly, but it makes the Comet Star shorter. I'll need to do timing tests to determine if getting the Comet Medal is still worthwhile if this shortcut is ever used in a full-game run.

EarthBound check area glitch speedrun in 11:57

nemi43 2014-07-03 | Timing starts on file select, stops on "The End...?"

This is a speed run of EarthBound using the "check area" glitch, which can give you access to the debug menu. The debug menu has an option to instantly warp you to certain events, one of which is the epilogue after the credits. Details on the glitch and how to exploit it to access the debug menu can be found at the following links:

http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/SNES/Earthbound.html#CheckAreaGlitch

http://tasvideos.org/3406S.html#ExplanationsOn2pInputTextBasedRamEtc

kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Earthbound/Tricks_and_Glitches#Check_Area_Glitch

For a while, this glitch had been used only in tool-assisted runs, but a Japanese runner named 脳 (Nou) found a way to complete this run on console with the Japanese version of the game. His run can be found on Nico video:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm21955741

As far as I know, my run is the first on the English version.

Outline:

1:30 - Gain control of Ness: Luck manipulation is used throughout the run to prevent unnecessary battles and to ensure a near optimal Starman Jr. fight. Opening/closing the main menu and checking nothing were used to adjust the RNG where necessary.

9:09 - Daybreak: A Skip Sandwich is required to access the glitch spot, so I withdraw some money and head for the bakery.

10:30 - The glitch: The cliff-crossing glitch is used to access the "check area" glitch spot. As far as I know, this cliff can't be crossed without a Skip Sandwich. Info on the cliff-crossing glitch can be found at the above links.

The "check area" glitch took a while to open the debug menu. I've seen the glitch open the debug menu after only 3~5 checks, but I never got that lucky in a successful run.

The debug menu's options are gibberish probably because the menu is supposed to be in Japanese but the game can't load Japanese characters on the English version.

SMG2 TAS trick: Freezy Flake 2 shortcut [no audio, 1/3 speed]

nemi43 2014-02-20 | Sorry for the slow video--Dolphin runs rather poorly on my computer. The recording also got desynced, so this isn't exactly the way I wanted to demonstrate this shortcut, but the shortcut itself was preserved.

For details on how to do the Rock Mushroom jumps, see Yoshifan's notes:

docs.google.com/document/d/13HenHN3IA2mQih2k8Ve_VZdK-yIoX8fnXB2g2eMaZGM

This shortcut is probably a TAS-only trick because about 9 or 10 consecutive mid-air jumps are needed to reach the boss planet. A video by Darkemperor91, who found this glitch, shows him getting almost that many jumps, so someone of his skill level might be able to pull off this shortcut on console.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlv1Cs0tnk4

Unsurprisingly, rolling as a rock does absolutely nothing against the boss, so it's necessary to intentionally get hit and lose the power-up before completing the fight.

Orbit

nemi43 2014-02-14 | I was trying to see if it's possible to flutter from the first planet to the last, and this is what I got. After a few hours of trying, I never got the shortcut to work.

The way to do this is to climb to the top of the tree on the first planet, and then start fluttering away from the last planet. Because of the first planet's shape, the flutter will arc around to the bottom of the planet. However, if you gain enough height during the flutter, Yoshi will start falling towards the last planet.

It's easy to hit a kill plane while falling towards the last planet. Also, Mario's gravity changes before you actually reach inside the planet, so he starts falling in a circle like in this video. I don't know if it's possible to get closer to the planet once Mario's gravity changes, but a dismount off Yoshi might help. I still haven't managed to reach the last planet while on Yoshi because I haven't been able to avoid the kill plane without an early dismount.

Some Sky Station 1 notes

nemi43 2014-02-13 | 0:14 - On top of Yoshi's house, standing still after talking to the Luma shortens the Launch Star pause by about half a second. Normally, the camera pans to the Launch Star and then pans back to Mario, but standing still prevents the movement back to Mario. For some reason, this does not work in Sky Station 2, even though the first Launch Star appears in a similar way.

0:33 - The homing ground-pound on the second planet saves about 10 to 15 frames...and it's totally worth it. It's necessary to pause the Luma with a spin in order to set up the ground-pound before the Luma transforms, but the ground-pound saves time even with the pause. The Luma appears earlier if Mario's wall-jump was angled further away from the camera, but the ground-pound can be set up in the same way even if the Luma appears earlier.

In all seriousness, this is probably an IL-only strat, but I feel like it can be made somewhat consistent with practice.

0:52 - Getting a smooth long-jump through the Medal like this is easier the earlier you reach this planet. At the beginning of the jump, I hold NNE on the analog stick, and then hold straight East after getting the Medal.

If you have trouble reaching the planet early enough, it can help to look away from this planet while waiting for the Luma to transform on top of Yoshi's house. While waiting, turn around and enter first-person view. The shorter Launch Star pause should still work.

In-game time was 1:51.01. A run from a new file would be 1 or 2 seconds longer because of the Comet Medal message.

SMG2: World 3 test run

nemi43 2014-02-12 | Another 1:19 saved for a total of 3:22. There are a few ugly mistakes in this run, but this should work for sharing strat ideas. I think I lost about 30 seconds to mistakes.

Splits:

Cloudy Court 1: -3.0s
Freezy Flake S: -3.2
Freezy Flake 1: -8.2
Haunty Halls 1: -9.5
Cloudy Court C: -12.0
Tall Trunk 1: -30.3 (This split gained significant time because of a mistake in my PB.)
Haunty Halls 2: -34.0
Beat Block 1: -44.2
Sky Station C: -37.7 (I should've gained about 5 seconds here, but I lost about 11 seconds against the boss.)
Yoshi Star C: -40.6
Flip-Swap 1: -43.8
Puzzle Plank C: -45.4
Boulder Bowl C: -59.5
Fearsome Fleet 1: -1:19

Run Time: 31:07 (From selecting Cloudy Court 1 to "You got a Grand Star!")

Cloudy Court 1

1:00 - On the last planet, using only 2 clouds to climb the first wall makes it possible to clear the next wall with 3 clouds. If done smoothly (which this run did not do), this can potentially save almost half a second vs. using 3 clouds to climb the first wall.

1:17 - There are several ways to clear the crushers, but I'm not sure what is the most consistent. For the method I used here, the idea is to make three clouds on the left side of the gap, and then use them for wall-jumps as they rise to the top. When making the clouds, it isn't necessary to get boosted jumps.

Freezy Flake 1

4:55 - I'm not very consistent with revealing the Launch Star with an early fireball. My method is to hold the analog stick NNW during the first long-jump. Just before Mario touches the Fire Flower, I try to tilt a bit above NW and then throw a fireball as soon as I can. In this run, my first attempt failed because I was tilting too far north before touching the Fire Flower.

5:15 - I tried to clip into the slide as in Packattack's Green Star 2 run, but I think my long-jump was a bit too early. Getting the clip is surprisingly consistent, and it doesn't hurt if you fail it. I use one of the pieces of the destroyed Bowser sculpture as a landmark to determine the timing of the long-jump.

5:20 - To land directly in front of the Comet Medal out of the slide, move to the right side of the tube. When the third coin from the end scrolls off-screen, jump while keeping the analog stick neutral. Throw a fireball just before Mario lands to hit the block hiding the Medal.

Sky Station C

18:17 - On the second planet, I compared getting the first stopwatch vs. getting the one closest to the Launch Star, and getting the first one is about 1 second faster if you can get the long-jump off the crystal. This long-jump is a bit tricky, though, because it doesn't work if you're too close to the tip of the crystal.

18:52 - The second hit on Pee-Wee was mistimed and is the biggest mistake in the run.

Puzzle Plank C

24:41 - This Star was just sloppy from start to finish. I can get a low 33 with this route, but I ended up getting 39.25. I find this Star is easier if you focus on lining up Mario with the corners or middle of the floor tiles instead of focusing on the coins themselves.

Boulder Bowl C

26:20 - I start by rolling straight up to try to hit a couple of cyan Crabbers. From there, I try to anticipate targets by looking through the grating of the planet while trying to keep in mind the Star's spawning location.

Fearsome Fleet 1

28:47 - My consistency method for fluttering to the Question Block is to run up-left from inside the crater. Once Yoshi is on the edge of the crater, I start fluttering while holding straight right for at least the first couple of flutters.

Once I'm on the Question Block, I start the next flutter with a spin while holding straight up. There's a slight chance the flutter will lose speed, so it might help to tilt slightly to the right after the first few flutters.

The hardest part is fluttering under the glass dome because it's easy to accidentally hit the kill plane. Paranoia caused me to flutter a bit too high, which slowed me down and cost at least 5 seconds.

30:55 - Thanks to neguro for the idea of dismounting to reach the Sling Star. This is about 0.5 seconds faster than fluttering.

The only problem is that Yoshi is denied his due once again.

SMG2: World 2 test run

nemi43 2013-12-21 | 50 seconds saved on World 2. With the 1:13 saved on World 1, that makes a total of 2:03 saved over my PB.

Splits:

Puzzle Plank 1: -6 s
Hightail Falls 1: -12
Cosmic Cove 1: -- (skipped these 3 splits due to a route change)
Cosmic Cove S: --
Boulder Bowl 1: --
Honeybloom S: -35
Lava Lair 1: -50

0:44 - The biggest problem I have with this triple jump is losing speed on the double jump off the semicircular piece because this piece is a little to tall for Mario to cleanly jump on top of it every time. To avoid this problem, I try jumping off the right side of the piece rather than the middle.

3:25 - The short hop after the camera cancel seems to let Yoshi reach the Dash Pepper a few frames earlier.

10:57 - The Rollodillo fight was pretty bad, and several more seconds can be saved here. I haven't been able to find a consistent method for landing the last 2 hits with a single roll. This fight was worse than usual because one of these hits took 3 rolls while it shouldn't take more than 2.

16:02 - The wall-jump is only for making the lava hops more consistent, and it costs about 1 second. Without the wall-jump, Mario can barely reach the lower platform in 2 hops. I need the Life Mushroom for a later shortcut, so I can't afford to take more than 2 hits.

16:13 - This method for getting the Comet Medal is the fastest I could find. If the long-jump off the second Whomp is timed right, you can get a boost from the Whomp's walking motion and reach the meteorite in a single jump. I've been able to do this only once, though.