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THE FANCY PANTS ADVENTURE WORLD 1 NG SINGLE SEGMENT SPEED RUN
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First of all, this run is available on YouTube. Go check it out there if you want:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhVQioYd2pk

This is an infuriating game to speed run, precisely because it is so fast moving and so easy to make a mistake. You'd think a (now less than) two and a half minute run would be easy to complete, but this game has it in for you. Obstacles to jump over and treacherous gaps are your biggest enemies here, as they will constantly conspire to screw you over.

This is now a New Game run because I opted out of the wall jump. It was causing more problems than it was solving.

I got interested in running this game because I'm at college and pressed for time. Each attempt only takes about 1-2 minutes, so I could get in numerous attempts in a short span of time.

At first it took me forever to figure out how to turn on the timer to get this time recorded, and after much searching I finally found out all you had to do was hit T. I felt really silly after that.

With that out of the way, I started to do runs. The first serious run I completed was timed at 171.03, almost 23 seconds slower than my personal best. I cut down the times dramatically on the next two runs, clocking in at 162.67 and 151.90. I got another run at 151.40 that I would have submitted if I hadn't been recording my microphone accidentally, and I was so close to sub 150 that I had to keep trying.

I spent about three hours of attempts on my first submitted run on 29 September, 2013, until I finally got this run at about 21:00 (that's 9:00 PM for you 12-hour clock people). I had started out that day getting consistent runs up till Level 2, Room 2, but then I started to get tired and made silly mistakes. Apparently, though, I trucked through and wound up with this run. But though this run was accepted on SDA recently, there were many verifiers who knew that I could improve my time. They challenged me to go for a faster time and I accepted that challenge.

On 1 November, 2013, about a month after the first run, I did a very different run of Level 3 (although I still messed up the ideal strat) and got a 148.30, thus achieving my original goal of cutting 150. I am proud of this run but I know I can do better and will continue to do so until I get the perfect Level 3 and thus a better time. For now, though, I present this run of The Fancy Pants Adventure, World 1, in 148.30.

The following are meticulous notes for each section of the game. Most of them are identical to those in the comments in my first run, though some things have changed:

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Level 1, Room 1:

The first couple of spiders never kill a run. Ever. Dodging the third spider is easy as well. You want to jump over the third spider and land on the trampoline. For a few attempts I was failing to land on the trampoline after jumping over the third spider, which was frustrating, but it didn't happen all too often.

A bit more about that second jump. I wanted to time it so that I spent the least amount of time in the air possible. That is, I wanted to just barely clear the third spider and land on the trampoline to minimize the amount of time I was floating in the air. I did a better job of that in my first run, but it was still okay here.

Clearing Spider 4 is easy, but the next part can be tricky. You have to flip over the ledge (done automatically due to the game's momentum-based physics) and then roll to take out three spiders and clear your path. Numerous things can go wrong here.

1. You could overshoot the flip by going too fast and screw up your timing on the roll. You end up rolling far more slowly and if you are not aware of it you can easily screw up jumping up the next couple of platforms, thus killing your run.

2. If you don't hold Down (and only Down) for the entire duration of the roll, you will get hurt by the third spider, also killing your run. Even touching another key while holding Down will do this. I can't tell you the number of times I had to stop a run because that third spider hit me.

There was another, far less consistent strategy for handling this section which involved jumping just after landing and bouncing off the first spider to land on the second platform from the ground. I got it relatively consistently, but not nearly enough to warrant continued use, as it didn't even save that much time (only about a second). It took me a while to finally figure out how to do the rolling without taking damage. The key was to only be holding the Down key. I kept holding Down and Right and wondered why I wasn't rolling. This was Brad Borne's first game and he didn't program that mechanic all that well, to be honest.

I bounced a little before rolling in this attempt, which scared me but didn't cost me the run, as he rolled just fine.

The next couple of platforms I wanted to jump up as quickly as possible by holding down the S key oh so lightly. Upon success, I cleared the platforms at around 14 seconds in-game time. Otherwise, it was closer to 15 seconds. I didn't do so well here, as was the case in my first submitted run. However, I say it's good enough.

A different strat was used during the loops that stopped after the first loop and leapt over to the next platform instead of running up the second loop. Apparently there is a way to let go of Right and make the next jump faster, but I was losing too much speed and couldn't make the jump. Not once did I make that jump with that strat, so I discarded it.

Next, I had to position myself so that I could jump high into the air and land on the second platform up from the ground instead of the first. It was very inconsistent, even though I got it more than half of the time. If I didn't get it, it wasn't too big of a time waste but it did cost about a second. However, I pulled this trick off running at such great speeds that I almost overshot the platforms!

The last part of this room is jumping up to the remaining platforms and dodging the mouse. I could do this pretty consistently provided my fingers didn't slip, and the goal was to jump over the mouse and fall into the hole just before the door without touching a wall. I did a very good job here.

I always checked the time after opening the door. If it was at 27 seconds I knew I had done a good job. Here it was about 28, so this room actually didn't go so well, as was the case during my last run.

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Level 1, Room 2:

The shortest and easiest room in the game. It involves waiting for the first moving platform to come out of the wall so you can jump on the second and then make a timed jump to the third. I found a musical cue that allowed me to time the third jump so I landed on the platform exactly as it was coming out. Very cool.

A good time upon opening this door is still 39 without the wall jump, but with a sub-par Room 1 40 was the best I could get.

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Level 2, Room 1:

The longest room, a room where so many things have to go right. To start, you don't want to run up the whole slope to land on the trampoline. You can jump off just as you're getting the third squiggle and make it a lot faster, which with practice I could do (mostly) consistently.

Jumping off this next ledge to hit the trampoline is easy to do and a good time-saver. Occasionally I missed the trampoline or accidentally clung to the wall, which was annoying but not a run-killer.

After the trampoline, if you land on the more level part of this slope, you can gain speed faster. This time I was able to do it pretty well.

The next jump was difficult to time. If you do it right, you can bounce off the rat and propel yourself forward with good speed. I did a good job here.

Sometimes if you did the rat bounce wrong you would fly off the next loop prematurely and not make it to the next platform. If you hold Left just as you're flying off you can still make it, which happened to me sometimes. However, there were no problems with the loop here.

If you jump at the right incline, you can skip the first platform up here. In all my attempts, I pulled it off maybe twice and came close a few more times, so I didn't go for it.

The fastest recorded run screwed up a strategy I didn't use here, but wanted to skip the first platform and wall jump over the spider. A better strat was to jump, touch the spider on the right side, and land on the platform with the trampoline on it. I barely made it this time, and it saved time over my first run.

Because I didn't have the wall jump, this slope wasn't nearly as problematic as it once was. A better strat was to jump before running up the whole slope so you didn't have to hit the wall, though I'm not sure how much time this actually saves.

The next jump was a complete bitch, to be frank. Sometimes you'd launch into the air before you were ready to jump and end up falling to the platform below (unless you were really lucky, in which case you hit the platform above just barely), which is slower than taking the upper route. To try to counter this I would sometimes jump too early and miss the platform. The lower route is definitely slower, so I'm glad I made the jump to avoid it.

The rest of the room is basically autopilot, except you can't hold Left the whole time up the trampoline or you'll fall between the platforms and kill your run. With updated strats you could easily leave the room at around 81-82 seconds, but because of a sub-par Level 1 I left at 83. Oh well.

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Level 2, Room 2:

This room killed me so many times. You can't keep a fast momentum or you'll jump too far, miss a platform, and fall to your death. Too slow, and you're just wasting time. This is where my strategy differs from the one used in the WR, but my strategy is more consistent, I think.

Here I recover health with some squiggles, but taking damage at this point only wastes time, so it doesn't really matter.

I figured out if you are quick enough you can run off the first ledge to the first moving platform and then make the jump to the other side, which was way safer than what I thought you had to do.

Even now, I suppose if you are brave enough to try really long jumps there might be a faster way through this room, but with my strategy I got a reasonable time. 96 is not the best time to hit that trampoline (you can make it at 94-95), but at this point I'm on-par with the first run so I'm satisfied.

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Level 3, Room 1:

This room is full of obstacles killing your momentum so it's hard to get through it quickly.

What you're supposed to do to handle the first two spiders is jump over the first spider, land on the middle rock, run off to the right rock and then jump over the second spider. I jumped early and landed on the second spider, which caused me to land on the third spider. Not ideal but not terrible either.

The spiders on the downward slope are annoying. They are timed perfectly to keep you from jumping non-stop to the slope. During my 151.40 run I almost bounced off the spiders and made it to the high ledge without using the trampoline, but I couldn't replicate that success here. I now know that it is possible, as I did it while practicing this level a few times, but it was too inconsistent to use. I actually made a minor screw up and didn't jump off the left platform, but the spiders were still not in the way so I could continue.

After the jump from the platform to the rock, if you jump just on the edge of the rock, you will avoid the crow enemies and land on the last rock, allowing you to run under the third crow. This is the last difficult trick in the run, and unless you really screw up after this point you can call your run over.

Just before the cave before the hole, if you run off the ledge at full speed you hit your head and fall down, wasting time. You have to hold Left to keep that from happening, and I did it here without losing too much speed. 124 was the time I got entering the hole in the first run. This time I got 122, but it can still be improved to probably sub-120. That's for another day though.

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Level 3, Room 2 (Penguin Boss):

The boss is simple. You have to jump over his attack so he sticks to the wall, and then you have to jump on top of him to do damage. Three hits and he's down. Obviously it's fastest to jump to avoid the attack and land on him just as he's hitting the wall. This was what I did here.

It may not look it, but I actually played it conservative here because I've had good runs end by hitting the penguin too soon and taking damage. Still, I did this fight reasonably fast and it was a good end to a great run.

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The record of this game on video is 146.20, so I was off by 2.1 seconds. That's not half bad, and if you're reading this commentary right now, you know it was good enough to make it to SDA. I hope you enjoyed the brief run.

I considered providing audio commentary, but there's so much going on in this game so quickly that there's no way I can talk fast enough and still cover everything. So sorry about that.

I'd like to thank Zantier Ta'sa for his 146.20 run that inspired me to run this game. I don't think I'll ever beat that time, but I was happy to come close and to do it my own way. I would also like to thank TheVoid for his faster but less well-recorded run that taught me a few strats, and Arcanod for suggesting an alternative recording setup. Also thanks to SDA for hosting this fantastic site and providing me with hours of entertainment watching people beat video games quickly.

If you want the latest info on this run, head to my Fancy Pants Adventure, World 1 forum here: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/the_fancy_pants_adventure_world_1.html

If I ever feel up to it, I'm still considering trying to speed run Fancy Pants Adventure World 2. There are two categories that would fit nicely: any% (beating the game as quickly as possible) and 100% (hitting the shells into the golf holes to unlock all the pants colors). It's a longer game, though, so I don't think I will try it any time soon. When I get back home I will also keep attempting Scooby-Doo!: Night of 100 Frights. My goal is to do it without unintentional deaths and in under 1:55:00.

Once again, thanks for watching, and check out my Sly 2 segmented run if you have the time:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sly2.html

The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 2

-By Newtmanking

 

LEVEL 1:

-To start off, you need to get a snail shell into a hole to trigger the opening cutscene. Usually the goal at this point is to be under 10 seconds, which I am able to do. From that point on to about the end of the level, it is just basic platforming. However, there is a neat trick at the end to jump-slide into the mouse, which will act as a jump, but with some horizontal momentum into the spring to end the level.

LEVEL 2:

-One of the biggest problems with this level, and I suppose the entire game, is that your momentum seems to carry on in odd ways. For example, if you don't have enough speed coming off of the first jump, that will mess you up for the slide into the spider later on. Also, right after the spider-slide, if you hit down at the right moment while hitting the wall, it will skip increasing your velocity on the roll. Instead, it will instantly give you the fastest velocity right away. The intermission level here is just a matter of timing jumps correctly to land right on the door.

LEVEL 3:

-This level is very generic, just with some jumps that need to be timed correctly. The only thing different about this level is that sometimes your velocity won't carry over while running over the hill at the beginning. So instead of running off the top of it, you will run into the spider. This can be avoided by jumping over the crest the hill before the larger one.

LEVEL 4:

-The biggest problem I had in this level was after I jumped on 2 spiders in a row toward the end. I ended up catching the corner of the platform with the mouse, and it shot me. A couple seconds lost to that, unfortunately.

LEVEL 5:

-Again, a very generic level up until the pipe skip. By jumping over the tunnel you're supposed to go through, you can land on a later platform saving a good 30 seconds or more of time.

LEVEL 6:

-Ah, most known for killing runs before you even get to the boss. If you are impatient, and ignorant, you can miss the platforms before the boss door and die.

BOSS- At this point, I run back and forth, manipulating where the snail will fall. This way I can set up for an easier cycle once the bunny has gotten back down. I had some slight trouble on the third cycle, but overall it was a solid boss run.

 

So yeah, this run ended up destroying the previous world record by about 9 seconds. Shout out to Iwannabethepie, without whom this run would not be possible. He discovered the pipe skip and held the previous record.