Green Garden 1

Not much to say for this level. I recently found out that using a pumped-up bomb to cross the gap to the third light is about a second faster than kicking two bombs. GG1 is extremely consistent, and the only possible time saver not used is a very precise bomb jump up to the red crystal at the end which saves a few tenths of a second at most.

Sirius

Self explanatory, a pretty easy quick kill. Sometimes he'll catch the bomb I throw, though... that's less fun.

Green Garden 3

This is the fastest level to grab some quick upgrades. I got the perfect combination - one bomb, and one radius upgrade. Getting rid of those blocks also allows me to open the dragon head faster than going around, so the time cost of getting the upgrades is less than a second. Grabbing the remote bombs is also not only faster than skipping them, but much safer in case any of the enemies are blocking the path to the exit. Fortunately that did not happen.

Winged Guardian

The most optimal pattern is for him to use his fire-breath attack twice in a row. I got that, plus he didn't loiter around between attacks. Very nice fight. It's possible but extremely difficult to one-cycle this boss, but requires luck and some pretty incredible foresight to guess where the dragon will go.

Blue Resort 1

I grab another blast radius upgrade. And then skip most of the level. The crates allow me to line up for the bomb jump perfectly, which is very useful.

Artemis

She will always run down at the start, so I psyche her out and throw her into the water. You'd think she could swim, but apparently not.

Blue Resort 3

This is the most broken level. I use a 3-bomb jump to skip blowing up some turrets, and got lucky with the blue enemy's movements so I didn't have to move him out of my way. In the second area, I use a very precise bomb jump to land straight on the end-level trigger. This level was extremely fast.

Leviathan

Anything less than a perfect pattern here can cost a huge amount of time. Good thing this was perfect.

Red Mountain 1

Simple level, a pumped up bomb is used to cross a gap, and then I just make a beeline for the exit.

Orion

Second hardest miniboss to consistently quick kill, but he didn't even stand a chance.

Red Mountain 3

I've actually forgotten how this level was intended to be beaten. Falling off the ledge at the start skips a large portion of the level. In the second area, having full power bombs means I do not have to waste time pumping up a bomb to blow up the right-side pillars.

Hades

This fight went pretty badly. I missed a lot of bomb throws and lost a lot of time. After this, I was frustrated and chose to use a few riskier strategies later in the run to try and make up for it.

White Glacier 1

At the start, I go the wrong way briefly to make a rabbit spawn on the right path. I then viciously murder the rabbit and steal his heart so I can use it later to glitch my way to victory.

Regulus

Side step. Stun. Launch. Awesomeness.

White Glacier 3

This level is okay, but sometimes enemies will be in really awful positions. Notaby the pink dude after hitting the switch, and the penguin at the end of the level. Both of these guys can punt me off the edge if they get in my way.

Mantis

Solid fight, not really dependent on any RNG, which is a nice break from the norm.

Black Fortress 1

In the last outside area, I use a somewhat risky bombjump to get up to the higher section and not need to wait on the bus. It's slightly faster than going around, but there's a chance the plane enemy will hit you, and I would have lost my heart. If that happened, I would not have been able to perform the glitch in the next area, which works like this: By taking damage from a bomb while dizzy, and then falling off a high ledge, and then kicking a bomb, you can put Bomberman in a state where he cannot interact with any triggers. Triggers like, say, one that causes Sirius to talk to you, and one that causes a boss to spawn. So I walk right over it, and then cancel the glitch by picking up a bomb, allowing me to hit the end-level trigger.

Harvester

This is the reason this run is so good. This fight is disgustingly fast. Obscenely fast. OUTRAGEOUSLY FAST.

Black Fortress 3

I make a mistake at the start, with bad positioning for the bomb jump. This frustrated me, so in the third area I decided to just run right past the green guy without stopping. He can punt me off the edge if I don't line up correctly, so it was a pretty gutsy move if I may say so myself.

Altair

The strategy I use to quick kill Altair relies on me not moving for a few seconds. If the laser guy decides to fire his laser at me during that time, then I cannot quick kill Altair. Fortunately, this did not happen, and I owned him. For the second form, his stun timer is ridiculously long, so it's easy to finish him off.

Other notes:

I keep the camera zoomed all the way in for this run to reduce as much lag as possible. For some levels it barely makes a difference, but in others it does have an effect. There are points where I will zoom the camera out briefly to check the location of enemies (notably White Glacier 3) and plan my movement accordingly.
In terms of the route used, Green Garden first is the best for a few reasons. Number one, it means there's no unnecessary map travel. All you do is mash A in between levels. In addition, there's a strange nuance regarding miniboss AI. By fighting Sirius first in Green Garden, it makes the AI for Artemis, Orion and Regulus a lot more consistent than if you were to do any of those three first. By doing this, the quick kills become very easy.

Thanks to the following in alphabetical order and descending name length:

Animeowzerz - for being one of the few other people that has run any%, and proving to me that doing Green Garden first is the best way to go.
haruhasi - for having a really good any% time that pushed me to make mine as good as can be.
JaggerG - for helping me learn a lot of things in this game, and suggesting timesavers here and there which really added up.
nahoc - for the amazing any% TAS which gave me the idea to implement the Blue Resort 3 strategy into an RTA.
zvsp - for the amazing 100% TAS that blew my mind.

And especially those in my stream chat, who are extremely supportive.

I hope you enjoy the run, and hopefully soon I'll have another Bomberman 64 run to submit, too. :)

Blue Resort:

Stage 1: the bomb pickup was the luckiest place where you can get it and bomb staircases were well executed, 21 is good
for this level

Stage 2: i hate artemis, i accidentally miss to throw her from the arena at the beginning the fight is really random here
i think i lost 10 seconds here but not to bad

Stage 3: i need a little time here to set up the bomb staicases here but they are not easy to do in this level
otherwise 35 is good for this

Stage 4: leviathan is the worst of the big bosses in this game because of his damn luck, i hit him really early with
the bomb but after this he did his long jump attack this costs like 5 or 10 seconds but i think the fight is okay

Red Mountain:

Stage 1: i changed the strategy here and used a inflated bomb to cross the gap this is what animeowzerz did in his AGDQ
2012 run thank you for this,i got a dizzy from the enemy after that, it was not bad because you must wait on the bridge
there and i lost 5 or 10 seconds at the end because i failed a throw with the bomb on the second lever and on hard mode
they don't stay down, anyway hard stage

Stage 2: the first fight which was very good now and it was orion (don't expect that) because he is the only mid boss
who can not toss from the arena because of his shield attack, i used inflated bombs on him which is the best method in my
opinion

Stage 3: you must wait here twice because the minecart enemies are to fast on hard mode, at the end i lost a bit
time because there were two spinners and i must stun them otherwise they kill me

Stage 4: hades was a little bit dumb and bad luck was also here he didn't his long spin attack and i throw accidentally
a bomb against his arm which dizzy me, i think okay fight

White Glacier:

Stage 1: i used zvsp's test tas route here and you can't go faster in this stage because the wind blows so hard, good level

Stage 2: regulus was the best mid boss, 5 seconds is awesome and lucky

Stage 3: the slipperness here is annoying but if you play it enough it isn't hard otherwise nothing special

Stage 4: mantis was a cool boss i missed one bomb on him but 33 seconds is really good

Green Garden:

Stage 1: nothing special, i think you can't do this level faster

Stage 2: i know you don't need to inflate your bomp to hit him but sometimes he catched my small bombs which is mean,
i think it is safer to inflate the bomb

Stage 3: again nothing special here, the green levels are really relaxed

Stage 4: draco is a strange boss, i have the feeling if you stand and do nothing he did his short attack but i don't know
it definite but i missed no bomb throw, good fight

Black Fortress:

Stage 1: boring stage, two flames collected i need max power here for high tech harvester and you have no chance you must
kill the miniboss thrice

Stage 2: OMG high tech harvester a scary boss, he did his homing rockets at the beginning which is annoying but i solved
this good, i go for the strategy to kick small bombs to him and only use inflated bombs if he do his slow rockets
and he did his white orb attack twice this is bad but 45 seconds is very good for him

Stage 3: the hardest stage, 3 bomb staircases they worked well and i must only wait one time for the lasers, good execution

Stage 4: altair is a scamp, i have absolutely no strategy for his first form, vega is extrem scary with his laser that
makes the fight even more harder i want to kill him with kicked bombs but at 28 seconds he bashed himself from the arena,
the second form is not hard his dizzy time is really long it is easy to throw him of the arena

my thanks goes to:

- nate for encoding the run
- flip for hosting the run
- sda for being a cool community
- animeowzerz and zvsp for his videos and strategies
- and for everyone who will watch the run

This run was done after the full power run and I believe is smoother and more ideal in terms of actual speed. The full power run (and its many attempts) gave me a lot of practice and toughened me up quite a bit. Normal mode is quite easy in comparison to hard; I didn't know there were so many differences aside from enemy health, some item locations, and the behavior of the hearts (disappear vs. collectable again after a hit). For example:

- the wind and slipperiness of the ice levels is considerably less
- the blue and green razor soldiers are relatively docile
- less and slower fireballs in the fire stages
- Draco's fire breath (green boss) doesn't follow you
- Hades (fire boss) is slower (laser/arm/spinning speed)
- the levers at the end of fire stage one stay down longer

However, without full power there are some other difficulties, like maintaining max fire/bomb count and having to find remote and ultra ("cherry") bomb items. Indeed, during this run I explore more of the game and have to solve a couple more puzzles and figure some things out. For example, in water stage one I use the "dizzy boost" to get to the bridge switch.

I also figured out other uses for the dizzy boost in black fortress stage three that I did not use in the full power run. If you're curious, a dizzy boost (my term) involves laying a bomb a couple spaces away from the wall. Bomberman then holds a bomb in his hand, hugs the wall, and attempts to toss it. Since there is no physical room you will be knocked out and go backwards, landing on the first bomb, which will bounce you to the next, and up the ledge. It's quite fancy. I learned it from SpryoDi'sGameFAQs bomb ladder guide.

No time is lost in this game if you die during a mini or major boss. No time is lost if you say "no" to a game over. No time is lost if you reset the N64. I didn't abuse that very much if at all here, however, aside from killing myself if I drew bad luck at a boss.

The main reason this is much longer than hard power mode, besides the obvious, are the bosses. Without remotes for Altair's henchmen it can take much longer to land a pumped explosion on them and then even just finishing them off can be a challenge. The most difficult bosses to obtain all five cards are Altair and Spellmaker, which is why I saved a segment just for each one (although I was confident enough to go for the difficult cards after Spell, which paid off in the end...it could have gone quite badly).

Speaking of cards, here's a summary: in each action stage you can find three cards hidden. One card is earned after killing 30 enemies and the fifth is a reward for beating the stage under a predetermined time limit. Bosses have their own unique requirements: big ones involve blowing pieces of them off (arms, wings, missile launchers, etc.) while the Bomberman sized guys involve catching them in explosions, bouncing a pumped bomb off their head, and doing something goofy (like getting caught in Orion's shield or knocking Regulus out as he does a ninja dash). All bosses also have a time limit.

Have fun! Enjoy the "bloopers" in the credits that Hudson put in as a reward.