American Dad Intro Speedrun (WR) | [5.43 Seconds] | Explanation in the Comments
10So, you know how American Dad intro speedruns are typically ran on the Gamecube version of the game? Well, something I noticed is that the Wii port of the game actually has a very odd glitch that you can pull off when running the Wii version on the Wii U via backwards compatibility. The game will stutter on the frame right before Stan hits the floor when jumping down in the modern version of the intro, which allows you to get 3 quarter A presses in a single frame. Now, as the entire American Dad community knows, the devs, for some reason, added a cheat where you could reverse the game by getting the aforementioned 3 quarter A presses in the frame that the game stutters on. Although the game almost never stutters long enough for this to actually be useful, this is the one exception currently known. By using the "fraction A press" glitch and putting the intro in reverse, the game goes back to the American flag, which it mistakes for the American flag at the CIA, which is what triggers the end of the intro. So, the glitch was the perfect solution to all our intro-speedrunning needs, right?
Wrong.
You see, this glitch only works on the unlockable modern version of the intro added in the Wii port, and not the classic version of the intro. This might not seem like a problem until you consider that specifically in the modern intro, the flag only allows you to progress past the intro and to the rest of the game if it's tilted by Stan's car, and the American flag in the beginning isn't crooked. But, of course, I did still complete the intro. How did I do it, you may ask?
After another couple hundred hours of labbing the game, I noticed that there was yet another glitch, this time allowing you to change which version of the intro the game uses whenever you want, not just before creating a save. This is caused by spitting on the Wii U while hitting A, Start, and Select at the same time. Normally, this isn't something of note, other than being able to increase your FOV thanks to widescreen. After many more hours of labbing out the game, I realized that this could be combined with the last glitch (the fraction A press glitch). By doing this at the exact moment the camera zooms out and pans to the American flag once more, I could switch the game to the classic version of the intro. This still sounds like it's not that important, but in the classic intro, the American flag at the CIA is never actually hit and is up straight, which corresponds with the beginning flag, which confuses the game and allows you to progress. With all that information, here's a list of the actions I performed to get this time:
-Clip through the floor when Stan gets out of bed (You should know how to do this by now)
This is just a general timesaver
-Fraction A press to reverse the game (hit the A button 3 times in the same frame while the game stutters)
This reverses the game and sets up the next glitch
-Intro version switch (Spit on your Wii U while hitting A, Start, and Select at the same time)
This allows you to skip virtually the entire intro by confusing the game into thinking you're at the CIA American flag, although all you did was just go back to Stan's American flag, and because you switched back to the classic intro, the CIA's flag is up straight, which is what confuses the game in the first place
This run may have been dormant for a little bit, but hopefully, these discoveries will advance the run into sub-5 territory
Good luck, everyone!