Disclaimer
I did this run on a Powerpak. In case it matters for future reference, I used a ROM with checksum afa6d274a86d33cfb519515061704af3.

SDA history
09-Sep-2013 - 0:06:57 by ktwo (http://www.archive.org/download/2014-02-20-SDA_Speed_Runs/)

Speedrun information
For information about speedrunning Mighty Bomb Jack and to get a better understanding of what's going on in this run, go to the guide in the SDA knowledge base (referred to as sdakb in my comments below):
https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Mighty_bomb_jack_(nes)

Background
Last time I played this game was more than 10 years ago, which resulted in a 6:57 run. In 2018, the Japanese runner 'msm_smtn' posted a 6:42 (when converted to SDA-timing). Almost every room had different solutions than what I used in my run. It's often surprisingly difficult in this game to tell which room solution is the faster just by watching. But given the time difference, I assumed there were many route improvements over my run. I made a mental note that I one day wanted to better understand the new routes and possibly even work on improving my pb.

In 2023, 'SpaceColonizer' submitted an any% TAS to tasvideos. Seeing the submission, I engaged to see if I could help with information about the game and reviewing the submission. Several iterations later, we now have for the first time a solid any% TAS and several route improvements found over the ones 'msm_smtn' used. The biggest one coming from 'SpaceColonizer', who "rediscovered" a shortcut that had been published and available on the net for a long time, but had simply been overlooked. Triggering the shortcut is very obscure and it's doubtful whether anyone actually found it on their own without the help of a strategy guide. Equipped with new route improvements, 'SpaceColonizer' and 'threecreepio' did real-time attempts and soon lowered 'msm_smtn's time.

With the any% TAS finally being done for this game, the rediscovery of the new shortcut (saving ~9s?) and several new room solutions having being found, I decided it was finally time for me to work on improving my pb... With easy time saves throughout the whole run, I quickly lowered my pb to 6:51 (if memory serves me right?) and 6:36. Neither recorded or worth remembering. The next pb was 6:31 in mid-Februari, which started to look like a speedrun, but still with several major mistakes. At this point I started to do attempts more regularly, which eventually resulted in a 6:30 at the end of February. Still with unacceptable mistakes. The 6:31 and 6:30 runs are linked to in the forum. I increased the sessions doing attempts even more, which resulted in two more 6:30 (both with major mistakes in the last rooms of 17). On top of that, I had two more attempts on pb pace that ended in the last rooms of 17 (which normally shouldn't pose any problems, except when on pb pace) and numerous attempts ending in 14-16 before I completed the submitted run.

Run comments
For the general game mechanics, please refer to the sdakb. The room solutions in this run is a major overhaul of the ones I used in my previous SDA-run. A couple of the room solutions (or tweaks of existing ones) were found by me, but most of the improvements were found by 'msm_smtn', 'SpaceColonizer', 'hisatoki' and 'threecreepio'.

While the shortcut will be explained in the sdakb, I will still say a few words about it here. There are two main points to open up the shortcut. The first is to find a hidden sphinx (an item used throughout the game to open locked doors) in 5-2 (room name from the game map, linked in the sdakb) to 5-5. 5-5 appears to be a dead end with the only open exit being back to 5-2. However, if you die in 5-5, then repeat the process and die a second time in 5-5 and then finally return a third time, a secret passage has opened at the top to "5-X", which then leads to room 11. Other than being convoluted, opening up the secret shortcut costs quite a bit of time. The alternative is to warp from palace room to palace room and get to 11 that way. The shortcut turns out to be ~9s faster though.

While the execution could be tighter throughout the run, I only made two noticeable mistakes. The first was in room 13, where I accidentally landed in one of the alcoves on the right side, which cost a few tenths of a second. The second mistake was canceling the jump too early in the King's room (the last room of the game) and accidentally landing on temple roof, instead of directly dropping down to the breakable block. This mistake cost about the same as the mistake in 13.

Final thoughts
I think this run is a fair representation of the how far the routing of this game has come since my previous SDA-run. This game is definitely not the most difficult run to complete runs in, but it's not easy to optimize the movement. A lot of the actions are of the type "direction changes". Many mistakes are doubly penalized, by both losing time in overshooting and then time to go back the same way. And there is generally speaking a lot of "cornering" type of movements, where squeezing as close as possible around an obstacle will save time.

While it was a bit discouraging to lose a fair number of attempts near the end, it did give me a good idea of what time I could expect for a completed run. The submitted run had the best pace of all the attempts reaching far into the game on pb pace, so I'm actually happy I didn't complete any of my previous runs. However, to give an idea of there still being a lot of improvement potential, 'threecreepio' has at the time of writing a pb (performed on emulator) that is almost 5s lower than my submitted run.

Credits
* 'SpaceColonizer' - Completing the any% TAS, finding route improvements (including the rediscovery of the shortcut to 11)
* 'threecreepio' - Route improvements and an extremely solid pb that I used as timing reference
* 'hisatoki' - I did not use some of the room solutions from the 2007 best ending TAS in my previous SDA-run, but they made their way into the new submission.
* 'msm_smtn' - Re-routed almost every room in his 2018 run. Several of those room solutions are still in use.