[TAS] Wii Play Tanks! - All 100 Missions in 25:48.20

In which Guest B, in his Sisyphusian task of total Mii eradication, hops in a tank he found on the side of the road and wreaks havoc.

Saves more than six minutes in comparison to the TAS @MKgumba made over four years ago (17 minutes faster than the current RTA WR at the time of video upload) through a combination of sheer optimization and setting the aspect ratio to 4:3 (Which actually changes the physical size of the field instead of just stretching or squishing the final image). There’s a surprising amount of nuance in TASing this, due to how the tank controls, the different behavior and AI of enemy tanks, and good ol' physics.

The player's tank can only move while rotating if the intended angle is close enough to the current one; it completely halts in place waiting for the rotation to “catch up” otherwise. The Nunchuk’s joystick can, at most, move six units in a given direction per frame while still allowing the tank to move. Thanks to @EpicRandomGamingChannel's custom build of Dolphin to allow Lua Scripting with Wii Remotes, I was able to automate this process of Nunchuk joystick movement so that corners could be turned as smoothly as possible. This alone probably saves entire seconds over the course of the run from not being stalled in place.

The player’s tank can have up to five bullets on-screen at once, after which the tank is unable to fire again until one of them despawns. The player’s bullets can bounce off of walls one time, in contrast to Teal and Black tanks (No bounces) and Green tanks (Two bounces). Bullets despawn when they hit other tanks (Obviously), walls after they’ve reached their bounce limit, mines and their explosions, and - crucially - other bullets, which allows a last second defensive option if you’re unable to move out of the way. Due to the fundamental paths of bullets here (Straight lines, reflection angles equal to incident angles), Wii Play Tanks is actually a light ray simulator in disguise (Ignoring the landmine aspect), to the point where I booted up an ACTUAL SIMULATOR to fact check my thought process and see if certain shots were possible, instead of slowly firing individual photons (bullets) in the game itself.

The player’s tank can have up to two landmines on-screen at once. A mine is primed and shortly explodes if it detects a nearby enemy, or automatically explodes when a bullet hits it. The explosion destroys tanks, pink destructible blocks, and other bullets for roughly a half second window after the initial explosion. The explosion hitbox even extends through solid walls, which allows for one specific instance of a sequence break in the endgame when combined with cooperative tank AI. Naturally, you need to get far enough away from your own landmine’s explosion so you don’t blow up with it - with TAS precision, I’m able to perch right at the boundary until the hitbox expires to cut down on time spent waiting.

You face several different enemy tanks throughout the game, each with their own quirks and differences in relation to firing speed, movement speed, decision making, and so on. Brown and Gray tanks are the easiest to fight with their incredibly slow firing speed and reaction time, with Brown tanks not even being able to move. Teal tanks are similarly slow to fire, but have much faster reaction speed and faster bullets. Green tanks are immobile like Brown tanks, but fire fast bullets like Teal tanks that uniquely bounce twice before despawning. Yellow tanks are able to set landmines in addition to firing bullets, and opt to gain a defensive advantage by keeping distance in contrast to charging at you like the others. White tanks turn invisible after the round starts, but leave denser tread tracks in comparison as an identifier. Red tanks can fire faster and have more aggression; Purple tanks are similar, but are even smarter. Finally, Black tanks move extremely quickly, as smart as Purple tanks, with the same fast bullets as Teal tanks - the movement speed in particular makes them irritating to take down at a distance.

With the exception of levels that are a multiple of 5, all the levels beyond the first 20 are randomized, including the layout and enemy tank types. This means a good deal of timesave is still on the table by manipulating only the fastest layouts and tanks to appear, but I don't know how that works in detail. I still think this is a solid first attempt, and I’m happy with how it turned out.
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[DyllonStejGaming]

In which Guest B, in his Sisyphusian task of total Mii eradication, hops in a tank he found on the side of the road and wreaks havoc.

Saves more than six minutes in comparison to the TAS ‪MKgumba made over four years ago (17 minutes faster than the current RTA WR at the time of video upload) through a combination of sheer optimization and setting the aspect ratio to 4:3 (Which actually changes the physical size of the field instead of just stretching or squishing the final image). There’s a surprising amount of nuance in TASing this, due to how the tank controls, the different behavior and AI of enemy tanks, and good ol' physics.

The player's tank can only move while rotating if the intended angle is close enough to the current one; it completely halts in place waiting for the rotation to “catch up” otherwise. The Nunchuk’s joystick can, at most, move six units in a given direction per frame while still allowing the tank to move. Thanks to ‪ERGCXander's custom build of Dolphin to allow Lua Scripting with Wii Remotes, I was able to automate this process of Nunchuk joystick movement so that corners could be turned as smoothly as possible. This alone probably saves entire seconds over the course of the run from not being stalled in place.

The player’s tank can have up to five bullets on-screen at once, after which the tank is unable to fire again until one of them despawns. The player’s bullets can bounce off of walls one time, in contrast to Teal and Black tanks (No bounces) and Green tanks (Two bounces). Bullets despawn when they hit other tanks (Obviously), walls after they’ve reached their bounce limit, mines and their explosions, and - crucially - other bullets, which allows a last second defensive option if you’re unable to move out of the way. Due to the fundamental paths of bullets here (Straight lines, reflection angles equal to incident angles), Wii Play Tanks is actually a light ray simulator in disguise (Ignoring the landmine aspect), to the point where I booted up an ACTUAL SIMULATOR to fact check my thought process and see if certain shots were possible, instead of slowly firing individual photons (bullets) in the game itself.

The player’s tank can have up to two landmines on-screen at once. A mine is primed and shortly explodes if it detects a nearby enemy, or automatically explodes when a bullet hits it. The explosion destroys tanks, pink destructible blocks, and other bullets for roughly a half second window after the initial explosion. The explosion hitbox even extends through solid walls, which allows for one specific instance of a sequence break in the endgame when combined with cooperative tank AI. Naturally, you need to get far enough away from your own landmine’s explosion so you don’t blow up with it - with TAS precision, I’m able to perch right at the boundary until the hitbox expires to cut down on time spent waiting.

You face several different enemy tanks throughout the game, each with their own quirks and differences in relation to firing speed, movement speed, decision making, and so on. Brown and Gray tanks are the easiest to fight with their incredibly slow firing speed and reaction time, with Brown tanks not even being able to move. Teal tanks are similarly slow to fire, but have much faster reaction speed and faster bullets. Green tanks are immobile like Brown tanks, but fire fast bullets like Teal tanks that uniquely bounce twice before despawning. Yellow tanks are able to set landmines in addition to firing bullets, and opt to gain a defensive advantage by keeping distance in contrast to charging at you like the others. White tanks turn invisible after the round starts, but leave denser tread tracks in comparison as an identifier. Red tanks can fire faster and have more aggression; Purple tanks are similar, but are even smarter. Finally, Black tanks move extremely quickly, as smart as Purple tanks, with the same fast bullets as Teal tanks - the movement speed in particular makes them irritating to take down at a distance.

With the exception of levels that are a multiple of 5, all the levels beyond the first 20 are randomized, including the layout and enemy tank types. This means a good deal of timesave is still on the table by manipulating only the fastest layouts and tanks to appear, but I don't know how that works in detail. I still think this is a solid first attempt, and I’m happy with how it turned out.

[ceadeus]

Desperately trying to hear all the adaptive music that Scruffy talked about before Guest B annihilates the fabric of the universe

[clairebennett]

Guest B Decides To _GIVE WAR A CHANCE_

[Zwyrx_Hgqfyggz]

After Guest B's eradication of every pugilist and swordfighter, his campaign of carnage takes a more military turn

[stack]

Nobody:
Guest B: *casually deflects bullet to the face* 8:13

[JBRedux]

Guest B saw "Wii Play" as a challenge and decided to make sure that none of the other tanks got to play ever again

[numbug]

540 Miis killed in Guest B's ruthless slaughter, and the worst part is...

Guest B still had 22 tanks in reserve.

[alexw]

By my calculations, transitions are about 16 minutes of this run, so that's only about 10 minutes spent on 100 missions, or 6 seconds per mission

[dnkestptt]

only fitting that one of the best wii games gets TASed by one of the best TASers

good stuff as always 🤘

[blitzen]

the return of guest b was not what i was expecting today but here we are

[EclipseZer]

3:52 the balls of going into the 6 Greens' range, dodge all shots, and destroy them with bounce shots. Guest B is savage.

[khgaming_kai]

The Guest B cinematic universe just keeps getting better

[dubstepdishwasher]

I could never get beyond mission 30 as a kid, and I thought that was the last one. Good to know I was, uh, very wrong.

Lots of good memories playing this with my brothers, though.

[anonymousthekiller]

After defeating Matt in every sport ever invented, Guest B decided to defeat his training regimens too.

[squirtle]

Guest B won't be taking any prisoners in this war...

[midhere]

bro is the only dude I've seen rush down green tanks lmao. W run

[kenshiro]

something about firing these pellets and watching them click clack around the walls felt so satisfying

[ReddFiveOhOh]

the fact the devs made 100 missions for this game feels like sadism

[holy_crud_is_that_the_guy]

in all my years of playing wii tanks, i never made it past the first pink tank stage (which i BELIEVE is mission 10) and seeing that there's even MORE tanks that somehow exist beyond the veil is actually taking me out LMAO

[Twisted_Rose]

Swear I'm just sat here like shaking my head after each round completed like HOW MAN