[TAS] Super Mario Galaxy - Space Junk 3 in

Mario defeats Tarantox in record time! This is an improvement of 303 frames from PurpleSun's TAS which you should check out here: • [TAS] Super Mario Gala...
IL Time: 6063 Frames (1:41.05)
Rerecords: 9393
Any% TAS WIP by Xander. Playlist of ILs I've completed so far: • Super Mario Galaxy TAS...
I think of this level in 3 distinct sections:
First, the pull star section. At the very beginning, I do a landing cancel into an instant backflip. This backflip is 1 frame slower than a long jump but it sets up a much better angle when using the pull star - it allows me to fall back around the planet and bounce off a spider to conserve momentum.
I tried many, many pull star routes. There are 2 main options at each pull star: grab the next one as soon as possible, or grab it when you’re at maximum speed. What you see here is the best combination of those that still avoids coins. The 2p jump at the start of the pull star path saves 1 frame. At the end, I use P1’s cursor to turn Mario around inside the bubble. That way, when the bubble breaks he can land directly on top of the launch star instead of needing to turn around and walk (he travels farther when facing backwards). To break through the glass, Mario does an un-crouching spin which shifts his hitbox down (spin while letting go of Z). By this point I saved 101f.
The next section is some classic movement. I paid close attention to Mario’s speed throughout this whole part and tried to maximize it. The 3rd long jump lands on the small lip of the platform which lets me do the next long jump 1 frame sooner. The biggest movement change from PurpleSun’s run is the single jump I do which is fast because of the slope-like path and it gives me good positioning, allowing me to land on top of the next sling pod (SP). .
On the rocketship I strain onto the fin more which lets me land and jump sooner. On the L-block I land as close to the corner as I can, and do a 2P jump as soon as I walk over it. The momentum here is a great abuse of the weird gravity. This section saved an additional 121f.
Finally, the bossfight. I tried a handful of routes here. The main things to keep in mind are that you can’t hit any boulders (lose about 10f to hitlag) and you want to land as close to the next SP as possible (on top of boulders after cutscenes)
There are a lot of micro-optimizations here: after launching from any SP, there’s a set amount of time before Mario can use another (if he leaves the ground before this he won’t grab it until he lands). During that recovery time, I use both P1 and P2 to move the SPs to pick up Mario. This consistently saved time by letting me make each shot sooner. In addition to this, pushing the SP back this far will make it already wound up, so you only need to grab the SP for 1 frame to launch from it. This means that I need to line up the angle I want Mario to launch at before I even grab the SP. And on top of that, we want Mario to hit the SP’s hitbox from as far away as possible so that he has less distance to travel forwards. (I hope that makes sense because I struggled to explain it on stream. It’s something that’s best demonstrated)
On the last hit before phase 2 I needed to delay the shot so that the screen would zoom out far enough to put toad on screen.
Throughout the fight there are a few 2P jumps for the times that I can’t move the SPs far enough. On the final shot I use P2 to do a single jump with Mario so I can grab the SP on the next frame. In total, I saved 81f on the bossfight.
I was planning on making an analysis video of this TAS but it's probably for the better that I just get to work on TASing Sling Pod Galaxy. Maybe in the future I'll do one. Anyways, a lot of effort went into this level. Nearly hit 10k rerecords, the most I’ve ever done. If you enjoyed, do consider subscribing :D
Also I have an SMG TASing discord (1 & 2) join up: / discord