[TAS] TMNT 2003 GC - Stage 4: Donatello New Game

Channel:

Dimon12321

Subscribers:

2,810

Published on July 29, 2023 9:25:48 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbfmL5ncO_o

Game:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus (2004)

Duration: 7:32

142 views

9

This is a tool-assisted speedrun (TAS). Playlist with all stages: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3V0eG1j-1vKfkxneY3XydESL0dxPb2JT

Stage 4 Area 1

I finally had my strength improved. Being able to take down a Foot ninja with 2 weak attacks unlocks more potential for time saves, but this means more pain in the shell. The potential now lies just near a framerule which can be saved, and the problem is, not every squad can be destroyed fast enough to make the next squad spawn 30 frames earlier.
Foot Tech Ninjas also became easier to eliminate, but there’s also a difficult time-saving tactic in sight: “(A-A-A)-B, dash, B” - perform a legs-circle combo to hit a Tech Ninja with spinning legs as soon as they are vulnerable, dash and do a strong attack. This tactic makes sense to do against solo techs or 2 techs spawned close to each other near the wall. The wall is needed to have 2 ninjas hit by a strong attack in restricted time. As a result, spawn – hitting – vanish sequence finishes near the closest framerule, saving 30 frames. For a duet, the conditions must be almost perfect to have it done in 1-5 frames before the framerule. That’s why it’s not seen so often.
As an alternative, some spawn points are accompanied with urns, which you can kick into Techs and make them fall down faster and win enough time to cut down 1 framerule. The same tactic concerns “2 + 1” squads too, where I push one Tech into the upcoming Tech to save time.
I used all nearby urns on Area 1 with the exception of Tech squad #2. Unfortunately, I cannot collect 2 Techs together (neither Tech 1 and 2, nor Tech 2 and 3) to eliminate them in 1 combo or by doing B-dash-A-dash-B. If I let 2 Techs finish their show-up animation and kill them, there’s still no timesave for the last Tech if I kick urna at him because he lands far away from me. “(A-A-A)-B, dash, B” should have been used instead.
A new enemy is introduced here: Foot Bee. These foot ninjas in yellow aircrafts have the longest show-up and vanishing animations in the game and therefore are top priorities because other enemies can be destroyed while a Foot Bee spins and blows up.

Stage 4 Area 2
Here, I use leg-spinning combo more often. I’m satisfied with the shuriken management. Not much to say.

Stage 4 Area 3
The area is concentrated around 5 mini-boss battles. Foot fights in the first 2 rooms were mostly easy with the exception of the squad of 3 ninjas near the northern-east wall, which I couldn’t eliminate that easy for some reason because my weak and strong swings were bypassing one of them. Strong attack was more efficient, but the positions of fallen ninjas were uncomfortable for me to finish them quickly, so I went on with a combo.

Mystic ninjas were really easy to kill. I’m surprised speedrunners didn’t use combo-dashing on them, in the same way they did with Evil Turtlebot.
Unfortunately, I faced another desync when playing back the whole stage, so I had to resync the input until I reached the point where I left off, but some playaround moments were lost.

Stage 4 Area 4
This area provides a difficulty to speedrunning because some spawn points of Foot Tech Ninjas are placed inside fountains and, even though they don’t look that high, you still have to jump out which slows you down, and you have to cross their borders to narrow the distance you need to cover with dashes.

At least, 3 squads of a Bee + Foot Tech Ninjas were difficult to optimize.
2 desyncs happened here.

Stage 4 Area 5
This small area with well-adjusted tactic was a real nightmare for me! Desyncs here were stable! Savestates were not determined regarding Foot Gunner Ninja’s protection, whether my attacks and shurikens are blocked by his shield at the moment. I could easily hit him through the shield, but it didn’t happen during the movie playback.
Invalidating savestates in TAStudio didn’t help that much. The issue could be seen only when playing the movie from the boot-up or Stage 4 select screen. It seems like it’s a transit problem which cannot be seem by simply replaying the last area.
After the whole playback, I got a proper save and finally finished it.

0:00 Stage Select
0:23 Stage 4 Area 1 (in 1;20)
1:57 Stage 4 Area 2 (in 1;45)
3:58 Stage 4 Area 3 (in 1;32)
5:44 Stage 4 Area 4 (in 1;04)
7:04 Stage 4 Area 5 (in 0;19)

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