Alright, current WR holder here. Time for a text wall.
Course 1: Just follow everything in this video, especially the super tight jump at the end. You probably have this course down pat though, especially if you have a 19.29. Make sure you dash as soon as you can out of the water and the slides.
Course 2: Until 14 seconds in, just follow the video exactly. Try to be off the ground as little as possible during the jumps around 0:12-0:13, because you run faster than you move in the air. At 0:14, if you wait until the last possible second to jump off the raised platform, and then float and puff at the right time, you can get away with only doing it once, which saves a significant amount of time. Practice this jump. At 0:17, just make sure you dash immediately after hitting the ground both times. For the two jumps at 0:20 and 0:21, jump up and touch the opposite wall then do a single float and puff the other way. This is the fastest method to reverse direction. It's shown in the video. At 0:26, make sure you jump and hit your head on the ceiling right before the ladder. Because you can only grab ladders once you start accelerating downwards, this assures that you start climbing at the highest possible point. Jump off the ladder to the top instead of climbing all the way as well, this also saves time. Now the jump at 0:28 is difficult, but is very manageable and also extremely critical to getting a good time on this course. Just practice until you've got it down. Again, then just make sure you dash as soon as you hit the ground for the rest of the course and you're golden.
Course 3: Now the video for this is a TAS and as such, the time is extremely unrealistic. But it does show a few key concepts. First off, you probably already know to use Wing, it's the fastest ability. But the two things that make it the fastest are:
- Your drastically increased speed in the air. As opposed to the previous two courses, in this one you're going to want to try to stay in the air as much as possible, so plan your flaps carefully so you don't crash into walls and lose time.
- What I call jump-canceled Dive Bombs, or JC Dive Bombs for short. If you hold down and mash A and B alternately very quickly, you'll rise faster than simply mashing A. You probably already know this because it's pretty much mandatory to get a 39-second time, but abuse it as much as you can. How good you are at this basically determines your time for this course. Anyways, for the first 13 seconds don't try to copy any of the fancy movement the TAS does, just do it your own way and it'll probably be fine. At 0:14 however, while you JC Dive Bomb upwards, make sure you're already moving right at essentially the halfway point. This is because from my experience, it takes a bit for the Wing ability to accelerate and it'll allow you to move right over the water as fast as possible. Now it doesn't matter what series of flaps you do, just try to land on the right bricks without bumping into anything or landing. What the video starts doing at 0:17 is very important, however, because if you pause when Kirby is touching the block but hasn't started his landing animation yet, he will go right through upon unpausing. These are more important than you think, because from what I can tell each successful "pause skip" saves about half a second since Kirby's momentum doesn't stop. Personally, I don't try the first skip; I land and position myself for the next two, and try to do the next two. Missing these doesn't kill your run though, I got 38.44 on my WR run only getting one skip. Keep in mind the WR for course 3 is 36.50 (though it's unverified, I think it's definitely possible). Don't take the bottom path and break the blocks with flaps like the TAS does. I've tried it and I don't think it's humanly viable. Instead, take the top path and break the topmost block of the second column with a Feather Gun. If you do this right, you shouldn't lose any momentum and be able to keep going fast. After you go up, make sure you drift right like the video does at 0:29. This way, you can get more momentum to go left afterwards. Another thing worth noting is I don't land at the top of this segment like the TAS does, so I have lower flaps when I get to the bottom. So I drift left into the corridor at 0:30 and rapidly flap 4 times to get maximum speed while avoiding bumping into the ceiling. You can do this, or find something else that works for you, doesn't matter. Make sure to do the jump through the air hole the video does at 0:32. I personally have never done what the TAS does upon jumping out of the water at 0:33, but when I look at it again it does look viable and probably faster than what I did. Try it out and tell me how it goes for you. Like the video does, try to hit the edge of the platforms as you're falling so you can turn around and reverse your momentum faster. Do the JC Dive Bombs upwards as fast as you can, and there you go! Again, for course 3 the video is TAS and a lot of things in there aren't humanly viable. But it should serve as a nice guideline to help you.
I hope this helped. Good luck beating me and Anwonu, and if you beat me I might come back and try to get a faster time C:<
OH MY GOD Thank you so much for spending this much time to type out these tips for me! I am so happy right now! It really helped me a lot!!!! I will keep practicing and challenge myself until I get a time I always wanted... Thank you so much!!! btw you are my inspiration and idol.
And also after trying the trick on course 3(0:33 into the TAS video) I think it actually is faster to preform the trick. The trick lets you gain momentum to the left quicker than usual.
Human WRs are as follows:
Course 1: 19.20 Course 2: 29.85 Course 3: 36.50
So adding these up gets you a 1:25.55. That course 3 time though... I don't know if it's ever realistically possible in a single-segment run, probably only in time attack.
Also, I can't seem to ever get faster than 19.35 on course 1. Could you give me some pointers? I don't know what I'm doing slow.
1:25:55... We'll get there.
Course 1 is the only thing I'm good at so yeah!
The start is the most important part of the run, a good start gets you under 19:30. Usually I see how well my start is by looking at dedede. As soon as you start and run to the first bump Kirby meets, you shouldn't be able to see dedede, or you just got at least a 19:30. If you run to the first bump and see nothing, you get at least a 19:27!
The start is not the only thing that matters, when you reach the first waters you can press right early to save a few frames(you probably already know this). And as soon as you reach the blocks, press down and A at THE SAME TIME. Because if you do, Kirby's animation for ducking down will not appear and Kirby will dash through immediately. This will save you one frame each time. But beware though your thumb position also matters, since you own a 3DS XL you should be putting your thumbs on both the right button and the down button(mostly on the right button) to ensure that you switch fast enough or you might accidentally jump(happens to me a lot). And you might also know these.
But here's the fun part. After you dashed though both of the star block poles(or whatever it's called), you've came to arguably the hardest section of the entire Grand Prix. This part is extremely difficult, but once you know it the chance of getting through it raises by a lot. After you dash through the first pit(I always fall in there when I'm not paying attention), You've came to a 1 frame jump. One frame early and you're not going to make it and one frame late will cause the drop later to be impossible to dash down and will give you a couple of extra frames. It sounds hard but it's actually not that difficult, I can't really tell you how to do it but my technique is to stare directly at Kirby(I stare at the pink area between his eyes and the outline to the right. And don't fall down the pit while staring at him. It's just a personal preference) and wait until I see the right amount of distance then JUMP! Again It's just a personal preference.
The last two falls are easy, just connect them perfectly, and boom, you just got yourself a 19:25.
WOW these tips were very effective, thank you! I could already consistently get very fast starts (I use the sound of the noisemaker as an audio cue), and I knew all about the frame-perfect jump, but I had no idea that you could press right a few frames early to get out of the water running. That was really helpful! I will also keep in mind the slide thing.
After only ten minutes of trying these strats, I got a 19.27 of my own, and as long as I make the final jump I can consistently get 19.30 or below! No 19.25 yet, but once again, thanks a bunch!
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Dude, I'm convinced you're a TASbot now that learns after every run. Congrats! 1:26 is gonna happen sometime.
Also, regarding Anwonu's 36.50 that none of us have even gotten within a SECOND of, the man himself has spoken: https://twitter.com/Anwonu/status/896600045667135489
s'pose we just have to get gud now lol. I think the main things are just pause trick on all 3 blocks and optimal dive bomb cancels
Haha, thanks a lot man! And yes 1:26 is going to happen!
Hmm, so 36:50 can be completed. You're definitely right, after checking the map of Course 3 (Onion Garden) the JC-dive and the pause tricks are really whats left for us to improve since there might be no more major time-saving movements for us left to learn. We should share our tricks once we learn new ones. And if we do manage to get under 37s, 1:25 is possible.
So let's do our best and get gud now!
Oh! I suddenly remembered an extremely hard but really time consuming trick for Course 3, do you remember the TAS run you sent? I think the trick 22 seconds and 24 seconds into the video is actually humanly viable. I've done it once or twice but never really understood how to do it, maybe if we learn how to do it we can lower our time by a lot!
How did Anwonu achieve such a fast time on Onion Garden? Though I'm not trying anymore, I find it extremely interesting how he made it under 37s, and I'm not even close. So I'm asking about what you think he might of done to run so fast. Also, what are you Time Attack times? I'm just curious.
Same here lol, it's pretty crazy. I asked him actually, and he doesn't remember. I think 36:50 is absolutely possible but it would require two pause block breaks, insane movement and REALLY good dive cancels. Maybe also the dive bomb momentum trick coming out of the water or something, but idk if that'd be necessary. Keep in mind TAS time is 31 something.
Regarding ILs I never really seriously grinded those, but iirc they are my pbs. Course 1 is 19.27, course 2 30.17, and course 3 37.79
I haven't touched Gourmet Race in months, I basically stopped running it after you beat me. Didn't want to reset course 3 another hundred times LUL
That's insane, and I think you're right, the TAS has something to teach us about the moves. Maybe I'll pick it up again and focus on Onion Garden before I try other games. BTW do you have other Kirby games to suggest? Yeah grinding ILs aren't really useful lol.
Kirby NiDL's fun and allows you to record on emulator
It's what I've been running the past 2 months :L
