[MKWii TAS] Completing A Lap Of 3 Tracks with THE SAME INPUT
1,528Same Input Challenge Volume 10. Playlist of all videos: • Same Input Challenge
When I first started the Same Input Challenge in 2021, one of the most common requests I got was to do it with 3 tracks instead of 2. I always avoided this because of how difficult I perceived it to be.
In the years following, I've thought of revisiting the idea, and considered adding on to the already simple "2 ultras" concept. I thought that MG, being probably the simplest ultra in the game, could be the easiest to work with.
My only problem from there was that I never had any idea where to start, and so my motivation to just throw ideas at a wall was very low. Fast-forward to this past week, the success the WCC+rWS video, and its introduction of many new movement strategies motivated me to take another look.
Immediately my first thought was to perform the original method for GV ultra (i.e. respawning, then tricking on to the rock), which would give me time to move around freely on WGM or MG. The instant I respawn, my focus goes to WGM, in order to get on the zipper and then to the pipe.
I was basically forced to use 2 mushrooms here, since respawns only last so long, and I need to cover as much distance as I can. Interestingly, since I had respawned on GV, shrooming on MG and WGM have no effect, which is obvious when you look at the second shroom.
From the respawn boost onwards, my focus is back on GV, however I made sure that the trajectory was right for WGM, before editing as many mid-air inputs as possible for the benefit of MG.
Once on the rock, I slow to a stop, and charge an SSMT. In doing so, since I'm up against a wall, releasing the SSMT and immediately hopping will keep my speed under 10 and start charging another SSMT if I keep holding A+B. On MG however, I start accelerating, which means I can move freely so long as I don't hop.
When I finally do want to hop, both WGM and GV have charged SSMTs, so in order to prevent them from drifting away from the position I have them in, I cancel the SSMT and start recharging one frame later. This allows me to finally perform the wallride on MG, using the 3rd shroom (which has no effect on WGM and GV).
One quirk about this third SSMT is that starting it 1 frame after cancelling the previous one causes what's called the "unreleasable SSMT" glitch. This is ultimately irrelevant since I can just cancel a normal SSMT, but does allow me 1 extra frame of acceleration, as useless as that may be.
During the wallride, I ensure to both perform the ultra correctly, but also align both WGM and GV in the right direction. Unfortunately, turning WGM too far left meant GV went off the rock, and turning GV too far right meant WGM fell off, so I had to get creative. By using air pockets on GV, I was able to hop on WGM. Doing this in the right way allowed me to turn further left on WGM while turning further right on GV (aided of course by the following RFH).
This use of air pockets to essentially move completely differently on WGM and GV allowed me to get around the rock on GV, and respawn in the last KCP. I was also able to re-use the strategy from the start, and get WGM stuck in an SSMT while driving on GV. This ultimately made hitting the KCP difficult, but I was able to use wheelies and TF inputs to my advantage.
The final stretch of the TAS is probably the single hardest section of same input TASing I've done, not because of the planning required to complete the whole thing, but the number of different strategies used simultaneously on each course to move in completely different ways, all just to get the times as close as possible.
Doing this on 2 tracks is hard enough, so doing it on 3 tracks was an absolute nightmare. I started off with them being several seconds apart, and ultimately managed to bring that down to a respectable 0.2 difference (ranging from 42.3 to 42.5) after about an hour. It took another hour to bring that down to about 2 frames (42.33 to 42.36), and then one final hour to bring that down to 3 milliseconds (42.455 to 42.458).
Technically speaking, it might be faster to just focus on each track one at a time (I think 35-38 seconds would be possible), but taking into account the fact that I used Mach Bike and also specifically aimed to be focusing on multiple tracks as long as possible in order to finish at the same time, this route should be faster overall.
Music: Super Mario 3D World - World 5 ( • World 5 - Super Mario 3D World )