The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends (ntscus) (nes) [Any %] [Single Segment] [0:04:57]
Run Information
Completion Date April 23, 2013
State Obsolete
Internal Comments:
Comment State Information Checkpoint None

Time estimate: 4:58

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Run Comments

I really don't know how to start off these comments. I've considered:
-I bet PJ would enjoy this game!
-This is my tryout for Awful Games Done Quick.
-When people say Deadly Towers or Hydlide are the worst game, I point them to this.
-The only competition this game has for lowest quality NES game is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I'll let you decide which one is the official opening for these comments.

So, what's up with this game?

Bullwinkle needs to get his inheritance from the mansion, where the IRS are conveniently waiting to hand him his money. Boris and Natasha won't stand for this, so they try to stop him and Rocky.

There are five levels in the game, and if there's one thing I like about the game it's the fact that they kept the cheesy style of Rocky and Bullwinkle's titles.

Everything else about it is just terrible.

The graphics already look like they're drawn by the six year old child of one of the developers. Seriously, just look at those backgrounds - were they drawn in MS paint?

The worst offenders for this game are the controls and the music. The controls are slippery as hell when you're platforming, and sticky when you're trying to take care of logistics like switching characters and picking up keys. When platforming, I often have to double back and forth to prevent Rocky or Bullwinkle from walking themselves off the edge because of this game's completely screwed up sense of momentum. Alternatively, when I need to pick up a key or change characters, I need to stand completely still.

The music starts off as an awkward cover of the show's theme song. It's decent enough, maybe, but then comes the ear canal warfare. Incredibly high pitched, annoyingly arranged, repetitive, and just plain derpy music plagues the game. I think the only enjoyable song is level three's song, which as a viewer of my stream pointed out, is a cover of Thelonius Monk's "Well you Needn't."

THEN COMES THE GOOF GAS.

Take the worst parts of the game, the controls and the music, and make them worse - that's what goof gas does to you. I imagine this being a terrible ad. "This is your game. This is your game on goof gas." When the player gets hit by goof gas, their controls reverse instantly, and the music suffers from random note shifts.

Now, for a game this crappy, there is a little bit of depth and a few things to consider about speedrunning. I'll try to recall everything, as I'm writing and submitting this run about a month or two after completing it. First off, there's the character differences. To change characters, I have to stand still and tap select.

Rocky seems like the advantageous character, and the only other person I saw go for this run on Youtube primarily uses him. When you're playing as Rocky, you can tap B and left or right to fly in that direction. Flying costs health, but you can hit down to cancel the flight for either control or health conservation. When you hit 1 health, you can no longer fly. Rocky's normal jump is medium height, and his hitbox is (obviously) much smaller than Bullwinkle's. For some reason, Rocky cannot walk up stairs. He can jump on them, though. Goof gas affects Rocky for a very long period of time.

Bullwinkle is the main reason I was able to cut off a minute and a half from the only other run I've seen as a serious attempt at this game. By holding left/right and B, Bullwinkle will charge in that direction. This drains his health, but allows him to move faster and damage foes with his antlers. Health and speed can be conserved by jumping repeatedly while charging, something I take advantage of once or twice in the run. Basically, if I'm not concerned about health or needing to make very big jumps, I want to be using Bullwinkle and charging as much as possible. Bullwinkle's default jump is higher than Rocky's (strange but at least Rocky has his flight), and Bullwinkle can climb stairs. Goof gas also wears off much more quickly on Bullwinkle, but it's almost so short that it makes goof gas more harmful!

As is tradition with any speedrun I submit, the level-by-level rundown:

Level 1 is fantastic. The only slightly questionable thing is not making it with a charging Bullwinkle up to the first key, but it takes the same amount of time to switch to Rocky and fly up, since I need to come to a complete stop to pick up items.

Level 2 is probably the weakest. I undershoot one jump costing me about two seconds trying to get back up. Otherwise, business as usual. I conserve health to make sure I can keep flying when I need to. I bump into an enemy while flying (Rocky doesn't take damage from enemies while flying, only flight health drain) for consistency to make sure he isn't a problem when I grab the key.

Level 3 is normally a run killer because of that stupid staircase. But, it goes very smoothly in this run! I pick up the heart for a full health refill and more moose charging.

Level 4 used to be a run killer, but then I figured out the spawns. I miss my first few jumps over the animals, costing me a second or two at most.

And finally, level 5 goes okay. This level does unfortunately force me to be cautious, and it may not be easy to tell just how much the goof gas is screwing with my controls. I have a feeling I could gain another 5 seconds or so with better goof gas. Unfortunately, I took a couple of extra goof gas hits.

Overall, I feel relatively happy with this. Definitely room for improvement, but with these controls combined with horrible programming, it's gonna be a while. :)

Special thanks:
The children of the developers at THQ for making this game.

Anybody that DIDN'T flood out of my stream when I played this.