2019-07-15

In June, I achieved two major personal goals for Kirby 64: a 1:07:51 100% PB and a solid GDQ run. Since coming back from SGDQ I haven't had any motivation to play the game (my Wii is still in my suitcase), so I figured I would write up a historical note:

In May 2016, I got a 1:08:49, which I thought would be my last PB in 100%. While there were definitely some mistakes and the possibility for better luck, I didn't think it was feasible to improve it by another 50 seconds, but several things happened in the intervening three years:

2017/05/23 - 0xwas/illayaya released a 100% TAS of Kirby 64, which showed several new RTA-viable strats, perhaps most notably the Emp (penguin) run in 3-1.

2017/07/16 - seraki showed how to hit the HR clap pattern four times with spark, allowing one to keep fire for longer in 5-4.

2018/07/29 - lonpochi posted a video of 0^2 1-cycle. Personally I would classify this as the first useful glitch.

2019/06/06 - aleiku showed that keeping curling stone until the end of 2-3 was much faster, improving on an earlier idea by turara and Curtissimo about using curling just for the first shard.

and countless other discoveries by runners like shin_kuriboh, mobu_ngo, etc.

Even though I've had a long history with this game, I feel like I contributed relatively very little to 100% strats, and it was really the collective work of many K64 runners that allowed me to achieve a 1:07. Once again, there are opportunities for better execution and luck, and once again I don't think a 1:06 is possible at the moment, but who knows what we'll find in the next three years.