First of all, I would like to thank Zurreco for all of the great tips he has given me. Also, if not for his and Nitsuja's TAS runs, I would never have achieved the time I did. I would especially like to thank my best friend Matthew for his help in finding strategies in a couple of areas, to make them substantially faster.

Special thanks also go out to the SDA staff for having such a great site. Also, thank you Tompa, DK64_MASTER, and Blueglass for your support in my endeavor.

Though this game may be unknown to many, I know a lot of you remember how great this game was when you played it like I did in your youth. This game is always full of surprises, and I have enjoyed this game ever since it came out when I was much younger. It may look like an innocent, simple game at first, but a lot of shortcuts and strategies take skill, good reflexes, and sometimes luck to pull off. My run is nowhere near perfection but the TAS time by Nitsuja is 16:20, with many times that are unmatchable by human standards. I was able to match a few of the times, and even able to beat one of them, but came short a couple of seconds on others. Also, this run is done without obtaining heart containers in the game that increase your heart capacity by one. So I have two hearts throughout the entire run.

Comments on each level:

• Treetops:
  • 1-1: I matched the TAS time here, so no improvement necessary.

  • 1-2: I was able to pull off the shortcut skipping the thorns, using a new strategy from my friend Matthew to jump over them as the TAS did. You can see there is a slight difference in how I pulled it off, though.

    This mini-boss is probably the most random in the entire game, and the most frustrating. I am not sure if there is any way to make this battle any faster than this either. Using a new strategy I recently found, this is a two second improvement from my previous attempts.

  • 1-3: This time is only one second slower than the TAS time but is very hard time to achieve every single time through this part of the level. I was very happy to get this time on this run through.

  • 1-4: The snake battle went as well as usual. I have never been able to get but within a couple of seconds of the TAS time, and have gotten 270 only once.

• Forest:
  • 2-1: The strategy the TAS uses is beyond human skill, but thanks to another new shortcut by my friend Matthew, I was able to get within one second of the TAS time on this run (I have even matched the TAS time before with better timing off of the moon-shaped enemy, too, but rarely).

  • 2-2: This part of the level went very well. A higher time is possible, but only by a second.

  • 2-3: This is the same as the TAS time which I'm very proud of finally achieving, as the strategy to get this is very difficult in my own opinion.

  • 2-4: I was not able to pull of the perma-bounce on the spider so 3-4 seconds could be improved here, but it is hard to manipulate the spider to move the way you want him to for the perma-bounce to happen every time. Overall, this was still a good part.

• Fire Grotto: Welcome to heck, hahahaha!! But seriously, this part of the game is really one of the hardest, and it can be very random at times.
  • 3-1: First part was me just having a little fun since it is a down scrolling part of the level and gets boring after doing it over and over. I hate this mini-boss to no end, and not getting hurt during this was a blessing. My time is also one second less than the TAS time, but it is possible to achieve it.

  • 3-2: I have found this to be a very random stage, and I think it is usually determined by how well you did against the mini-boss. The first platform I jump onto that is over the fire at the beginning can sometimes turn to flames from fire shooter at the other end of the hole; usually after getting 227 in 3-1. So I was lucky this time, thank goodness. I don't know why I missed the platform at the end. It did save me a second overall, but cost me 1 second in the next part.

  • 3-3: I was not able to pull of my strategy at the "curtain of fire" part because I was hurt, but only lost a second or two.

  • 3-4: This boss is full of fun. The best I have ever gotten is 386, and 385 is possible. The strategy the TAS uses does not seem possible to me, or I just did not have that kind of timing. I just found the right side to be much more convenient with the speed at which the platform wheel goes around the boss.

• Pete's Peak:
  • 4-1: Great time, though with some more luck, 1 second more could be saved.

  • 4-2: This is THE hardest part of the game to me. You will cringe at the end, but thankfully I only lost 4 seconds and was able to recover safely and quickly. I have never done what I did there before, but the rest of the run was going so well at this point, I didn't feel it would hurt the time substantially at the end.

  • 4-3: Thanks to Zurreco for this strategy against the bird, I was able to beat the TAS time by 6 seconds. This also shows how powerful and valuable the magician really is.

• Snowy Valley:
  • 5-1 and 5-2: No improvements here as both times are at the TAS times.

  • 5-3: This battle went a lot better than practice and I am very pleased with the time. One second could still be improved here I think.

• Emperor Pete's Castle:
  • 6-1: Good time in my opinion, but maybe could be improved by a second with better timing at the beginning.

  • 6-2: Thanks to the TAS strategy, I was able to pull this off and save countless seconds. This is also the shortest time in the game with that strategy as well.

  • 6-3: I thought this went very well and a second could be improved with some luck.

  • 6-4: It's the end of the run, I try not to panic, but I do. Eh, that's life. What can I say; I only have 1 heart piece here, so I can't make even the smallest error or the run is over. Normally I don't miss Pete at the beginning, though, so I have no words to explain it. Even with panic set in and with the mistake at the beginning of the battle, I still got a time above 450. About 5-7 seconds could be improved here but I was still very pleased by this time even with the mistakes.

I hope all of you that watch this that remember this game from your childhood remember all the magic that it holds, and how near and dear it will always be to you. I also hope you all enjoy this run and thanks for watching.