Ikari_warriors_2

Level-by-level description

VIDEOS WITH AN ASTERISK (*) USE FASTER STRATS THAN IN THE CURRENT SDA-RUN

These videos have been recorded on emulator, but use strats that have been made with console speedruns and the use of a d-pad in mind.

Level 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFiP94v19tc
A random level. The enemy behavior in the first stretch is inconsistent and many times enemies will run into you without possibility of dodging (without losing time). Pretty much all of the flying enemies before going into the menu can also give bad bullet patterns that are impossible to dodge or only possible to dodge with time-consuming movements. The part after the menu trip should be consistent (or at least very close to).

The enemy that chases you in the first half of the level can't be scrolled off screen. Turning around to shoot it costs around half a second (due to how the game is controlled, turning around and shooting that enemy is quite easy to mess up though). Avoiding tanking the hit obviously makes the rest of the game a bit easier.

A consistent way of beating the boss quickly is (from when the boss appears) to move straight up. When at the same level as "bubble" on the ground to the right and throw a grenade (to reduce the boss hp by 1). It's a big time window for this. When at the same level as the lower part of the "bubble" on the ground to the left, start walking straight horizontally to the right. This has to be done more precisely, but can be done consistently. There are methods that are a few frames faster that rely on diagonally walking up-right, but they seem to increase the risk of the boss slipping away.

Boss HP - 15

Level 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru5vtl7W3mA
Finding the right horizontal pixel when flying can be a little bit tricky. Too far to the left and you will take hits by the flying enemies right before the boss and too far to the right will make you crash into one of the knight enemies. Overall, this is probably the easiest level to clear consistently without unnecessary damage though.

The boss quick kill has to do with dealing damage on the same frame the boss receives HP. Since the game runs at 20 fps, there is a 3-frame window for launching the thunder attack and achieving the quick kill (see screenshots below).

To the left is shown the first frame on which the boss quick kill is possible. To the right, the second and third frame on which the boss quick kill is possible. Luckily, there are some pillars appearing when it's time for the quick kill (only shown as garbage sprites here - but that has to do with the game and not the quick kill), so it's possible to get a visual indication of when the screen has scrolled far enough.

Boss HP - 15

Level 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nh79iSQg64
Quite easy level. The last part would have been hard to get through without taking hits, so using the robo armor turns out to be very convenient.

It's slightly faster going through the fortress on the right side. However, it's more or less unavoidable taking several hits. The below video shows the general concept. Overall, it's ~10 frames faster than the solution above. However, not all possibilities have been fully explored (possible to avoid some time-consuming dodges? possible to avoid more damage?). But it still looks like fairly certain that the right route will be very risky to attempt in a real-time speedrun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YwgMZjfXlk *

Another potential time saver would be to fly over the fortress instead of navigating through it by foot. However, there is no known location of an additional flying item, so it would then require to walk through level 2. Flying in level 2 saves ~13 seconds (and is very consistent, while walking almost always results in one or two damage), while flying in level 3 only saves ~7 seconds.

There is a trick to this boss. The boss health loops as long as the "face" is still intact. The the face has to be hit with the blast of a grenade (a direct hit won't do and the robo armor won't damage it either). That's the reason for starting the boss fight by walking backwards in the beginning. The boss face can also be destroyed by the bazooka. This speeds up the fight, but it doesn't compensate enough for the time loss from spending extra time in the menu (but maybe useful in a TAS with perfect menuing?).

Like all other bosses, this one can be killed by the arrow or by the thunder quick kill. However, It's 1.5-2 seconds faster to use the thunder quick kill on the second boss (plus it's an advantage to have the thunder quick kill as early as possible and it's also advantageous to go through the last part of level 3 in robo armor to avoid taking damage).

‎ Boss HP - 10

Level 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7esJoA7d0so
Around halfway (close to the mirror), a boomerang upgrade item is collected from a destroyed pillar. This is a visual glitch, it's actually a thunder power (to be used on the last boss). Visual glitches of this type can be seen in other places as well. In this area, there is a also a dodge to avoid a bullet hit, that costs ~0.2 seconds. It's of course possible to just take the hit if the health is high enough and hope for good patterns in level 5, so it's up to how much risk the time gain is worth.

Boss HP - 15. The boss can't be damaged by the "robo armor".

Level 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zToWzj6okdQ
This is a very random level with a few places that can deal damage without really a possibility to dodge. The very beginning is the first (and biggest) trouble-spot. The method shown here is probably the safest one found, but not the fastest. There are several different ways to approach this part with possible time gains of a few tenths of a second (with less diagonal walking), but requiring more luck with the enemy bullets. For the last stretch when in flying mode. Quite good results have been achieved by aligning so that the right wing tip is just at the edge of the screen (as shown here). It's still very roughly a 50/50 chance that you will take hits during the last section though, but still seems to be better than the alternative flight paths.

Boss 1 HP - 10
Boss 2 HP - 20. Just like for the level 3 boss, there is a 3-frame window for the quick kill (see below). Since the menu is not possible to bring up during the fight, no other special weapon can be used in this fight (and if in robo suit when triggering the fight, it will be lost during the cut-scene).

To the left is shown the first frame on which the boss quick kill is possible and to the right the second and third frame. Notice the position of the character's head and the green stuff.