Sonic Heroes (TAS) - Grand Metropolis (Team Sonic) in 1:09.74 {WR} [4:3 + Memory viewer]

Watch in HD if you can, it looks a lot better! (Thanks Sewer56 for the encode!)

If you prefer to watch a 16:9 encode (widescreen hack), it's available in Malleo's channel:

Authors: Tales (THC98) and Malleo

Malleo's Youtube channel:

Special thanks to Gamepro011, CriticalCyd, Deku, JustLemres, FusionVaria, and Sewer56 for all their help during the creation of this TAS.

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The main improvement for this level comes from bop boosting, a trick that essentially allows you to warp across a section of the stage. See the below explanation for more information. Bop boosting alone helped shave off around 9.4 seconds from Tales's previous best time here.

We also saw small improvements overall through better optimization of strategies, such as landing earlier after the first loop and getting downward momentum when going into the inside area after skipping the double loop section.

For the first bop boost, we intentionally take damage as Tails to get out of a glitched state that occurs after using a bop boost. Even if you land on the ground with Tails, the game will continue to treat you as if you're flying. Getting hit by an enemy takes you out of this state.

For the second bop boost, we got Sonic hit first frame and got Knuckles hit on a later frame. In doing so, we can activate a flight with Tails, teleport to Knuckles location, and we somehow instantly jump to 8 forward speed. This allows us to reach the edge faster so that we can fall and get the wall in between the direct line between Sonic and Tails. For the landing of the second bop boost, we found that by thundershooting with Tails on a certain frame, you can conserve a lot of your forward speed from the bop boost and use that to instantly reach the speed cap as Sonic. This saves a bit of time as we make our way to the spring right after the bop boost.

For the final bop boost, we got both Sonic and Knuckles hit on the same frame. We call this a Sonic & Knuckles bop boost, as opposed to a Sonic-only bop boost which we used in the previous two bop boosts. We still aren't 100% sure about the difference between these two bop boost versions, but the Sonic & Knuckles version allows us to cover more distance, with the downside being that we don't have much speed with Tails when getting Sonic and Knuckles hit by the enemy. At the end of the bop boost, we timed it so that Sonic and Knuckles stopped their getting hit animation right as we reached the wall above the goal ring. In doing so, all of our forward speed is converted into downward speed, allowing us to fall faster than normally intended in the game.

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Tricks used in this level:

Bop boosting: By getting Sonic hit by an enemy on the same frame that we touch the ground from flying with Tails, the game reacts oddly when we try to fly with Tails again. Knuckles thinks he's attached to Sonic, and Sonic thinks he's attached to Tails. So when we fly again, Knuckles tries to teleport to Sonic while Sonic tries to move towards Tails. If we put a wall in between the direct path between Sonic and Tails, the game will allow us to shoot forward approximately 180 units per frame in the direction of the wall towards Tails. This is used 3 times throughout the level to shave off time.

Kick acceleration: You can press and release B to kick with Sonic, which is normally followed by a cooldown that prevents you from kicking again for a certain time. This cooldown can be circumvented by switching to Tails and then back to Sonic, allowing us to repeatedly kick over and over again. This allows us to build up speed a lot faster than normal.

Triangle dive: Going into a triangle dive with Knuckles while in high speed allows us to maintain our speed longer than just jumping with a character. This allows us to clear wide gaps.

Light dash cancel: By switching formations right after doing a light dash (when you press B with Sonic to lock onto a set of rings), you will instantly jump to a speed value of 15.9. In situations where we have a lower speed value, this can be used to instantly increase in speed.

Object clipping: With a high enough speed value, you can switch to Tails right before coming into contact with a door or obstacle, allowing you to go through it. This is used right before we reach the cannon to avoid having to break the two blocks that are in our way.

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Game version: NTSC-U in Game Cube
Emulator: Dolphin 5.0 stable
Total Rerecords: 31355 (As we branched out from multiple .dtm files, this count is likely not very accurate.)

Former TAS WR: 1:24.44 by THC98
Real time WR: 2:16.03 by Deku

[chainchump]

Sonic Heroes TASes are some of my favourites to watch. Incredible job, can’t wait for the full run!

[TheJoiner]

"I'm being propelled forward! Now I can keep up with Sonic!"

*is barely seen throughout the entire run*

[XahGee]

Real power of teamwork = leaving it to Tails

[theultimategamer]

These are super satisfying to watch for some reason... Pretty fucking insane stuff!

Curious, but do you guys plan on doing a TAS for the entirety of Team Sonic's story? THAT would be a watch!

[babich]

Ran through entire level fast as crazy - still got C

[brianpso]

Leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it leave it got it!

[Superdavo]

Insane work once again guys - I couldn't really follow/understand what was going on, but it was definitely very entertaining to watch!

[aaronsound]

GF:Im alone :}
Me and my 2 imaginary friends:

[AleXx]

I didn't understand anything of this TAS dude but it's AWESOMELY INSANE....What a lad....
Great job to you, I can't wait to see another TAS of this









Baited xDDD
Edit: I love you

[CrazyCloud]

What the heck, that finish was wild lol!

[HammerAnims]

Is that character switching or a drummer playing a gnarly beat?

[DavidLawrence]

OMG! How in the DAMN hell are you going this?!

[xandert]

1:43 he's not wrong; you did just barely make 1:09