Crash 1 Speedrunning - Easy subtle timesaves for all runners

Crash 1 has a ton of stuff to it that is very subtle and may be hard to notice just by watching a speedrunner's gameplay. These are a bunch of subtle ways to save time throughout your runs. Get in the habit of doing them :)


- Spin more. During normal movement, you want to be zigzagging in the air and spinning as you're about to land on the ground then jumping again immediately. Beware of the spin timer (max 5 spins, each spin takes 2 seconds to recharge after spin timer makes the low pitch spin noise to spin 5 times again). Ideally you're close to or getting spin timered when you're about to go on the portal. Do not spin on slopes, bumpy terrain, or falling platforms or you may stutter - spin in the air here instead.

- On areas that resemble stairs (NSB, NF2 gem path, etc) you want to spend minimal time falling back down to do your next jump onto the next stair/spend minimal time holding X. An easy way to go about this is to learn how to buffer your inputs - you can press X slightly before you land and the game will buffer the input to right when you land, giving you what looks like an instant jump.

- Similar to the previous point, when using bouncy platforms (mainly gate levels) you want to hold X as little as possible when getting the height needed, so you spend less time falling back down. Tip: In the first two vertical sections of great gate you don't need to hold X at all while bouncing to the next bouncy box

- Jump off moving platforms from a point where you need zigzag to make it for it to save time (leaves in upstream, etc)

- In any%, when death abusing at checkpoints sometimes you can break the checkpoint with an air spin (the spin with the shortest frames of duration) and not make contact with the ground around it and just fall into the hole.

- Hold a diagonal in diagonal areas like the diagonal hallways in Cortex Power. Any zigzagging done while already going diagonal is slow. When you try to "corner cut", remember to spend any time not going forward (where you should be zigzagging) holding a diagonal. Generally, diagonals should be prioritized over curves unless they're quick curves like jumping around enemies in 2D levels. Diagonals should be used to maneuver around large groups of fences in Boulder Dash, for example, when you can't zigzag or jump over them. I also do 2 diagonals and a quick horizontal while going to the N. Sanity Beach backtrack near the end instead of an awkward large "curve" around the wall thing. Diagonals are abused a lot more in Crash 2 and 3, Crash 1 seems to have less applications and their speed is less noticeable but they are there.

- In areas like the curvy paths in lights out and fumbling, it's better to keep zigzagging until you have to go diagonal, then go diagonal til you can start zigzagging again to go to the next area.

- Do not use the ropes in bridge levels at all except for getting over the TNTs in Road To Nowhere and the statue in The High Road in any% to get over the box wall.

- Do not get third mask form anywhere except for the handful of spots in 100% where it's faster. Zigzagging is faster by a few seconds for most spots.

- On climbs on 2D levels where you are going kind of back and forth like the great gate climbs with the spinning things and the lost city wall, don't just start holding the other direction immediately when you need to go the other way or else Crash will be a bit slow in turning around. You can hold a diagonal instead against the wall and switch to the opposite diagonal when you gotta go the other way, though, and it will be fine. Ideally you are zigzagging while moving as far as you need to in order to go the other direction and *then* holding diagonal against the wall to turn fast.

- To turn around very fast in all other kinds of situations besides the one above, do a 180 with your dpad instead of switching to the opposite dpad button immediately. So if you were going forward to break some boxes and have to turn around after breaking them - you hold forward, and when you're close enough for your spin hitbox to break them, hit left/right first before hitting down and crash will be going in the other direction much faster.

- While moving on downward mossy terrain and conveyor belts, you should spin on the ground on them. If you are about to land on a conveyor belt after killing an air enemy like a camera robot, time your spin so that it kills the enemy but also connects to the ground so the spin lasts for more frames than just spinning in the air and then losing time walking on the conveyor belt while you could be spinning.

- Building off the previous point, while spinning some enemies you can time the spin so it connects to the ground. However, note that some bigger enemies like the eating plants are sometimes better to be killed with an air spin while zigzagging because they can sorta slow you down when you're up and close to them spinning them with a ground spin for some reason.

- While moving on upward mossy terrain, you should buffer inputs like on stairs so you spend as little time on the ground on them as possible.

- While on NTSC-J (for 100%), circle is another button for entering levels, so you can mash both X and circle to be more likely to enter a level as quickly as possible.

- When you're waiting for a mask to fall on you (especially when you're about to get third mask form in 100%), turn Crash to the direction you need to go to before it lands on you.

- While doing speedruns, take out your memory card/disable the memory card in your emulator - this will save a bit of time during loading screens and when getting gems you won't have to worry about getting stuck in a save screen waiting for your save files to load.