General:
Notation: You start facing north, so the carpet unrolls from west to
east.
M4 is the most complex
of all the Master stages. Also, it is just plain cool. The record strat
is
very hard to pull off, but it is
only the last of 3 steps of strategy development on this stage. The
basic
"good score" strategy
is around since ages, even Snap used it. The record was 9556, and it is
easy
to get within a
couple of frames of that. The basic idea is to use the stick to kick
you
forward as the carpet
starts to unroll. Though nice, this strat was far from awesome. But
things
changed. Ever since
people were doing the 9556 strat, they were wondering if it were
possible to
get into the goal
before it was unrolled. When you do the old strat, you may come close
to
simply jumping into the
center of the roll. You may come close, but you will not get in.
But it is possible, and things that are possible are achieved in the
world
of SMB. The strat is
nearly identical to the old one, but the details are slightly
different. As
far as I know TSK was the
first one to pull off this sweet strat, and only few followed. However,
the
score you got was a
somewhat modest reward for the hardships of pulling off this trick. I
had
9872, and it may still be
the best score with that method.
You can imagine how I felt when I was talking to FerretDruid on AIM and
he
told me: "I just got a
new score on M4. 10610." By reverse engineering, you can find out the
strat
quicky. You get into
the goal before the the carpet has arrived at the starting point! This
is
definitely the last
development the M4 strat will see.
I want a consistent finish!
Roll down, wait at the west end and face east. As the carpet unrolls,
roll
along and stop at the
first platform. Go into the NW corner and face SE. Look at your map
(yes,
the is one point in the
game where it is useful!) which should be zoomed all the way out, and
as the
red line passes
you roll forward to the next platform. Repeat until you are on the
final
platform. Go into SW
corner, face NE, and at about 8.30 head for the goal. You shouldn�t use
the
map for the last
platform, just remember 8.30.
I want a good score!
The good score is 9550, but you should try directly for the 9800ish
strat,
because you will get a
9550ish score rather often on failed runs. The main reason you should
try
for 9800 is that I
forgot how to do the 9550 strat consistently. Roll down, but slowly.
Roll
diagonally right along
the white tiles that lead to the nearest corner of the carpet. The
stick of
the carpet extends
approximately 3 tiles, so stop at the 4th or 5th white tile from the
carpet.
When the carpet has
come in, roll a bit forward and now face east, maybe a bit north-east.
You
are not allowed to
push the control stick as the hits you, but you may still want to roll
very
slowly as it hits. Where
should you be in that crucial moment? About 2 tiles south of the
carpet, and
1 tile away from the
east edge of the platform. As soon as possible after you get hit, hold
forward and then
immediately pull over to the left. If you�re lucky, you�ll bounce
forward
and up, hit the roll,
bounce away from the roll and then beautifully fly over to the left,
directly into the center of the
roll. But then, you want to go through the goal too, don�t you? Maybe I
should mention that you
don�t get into the goal often, most of the time you�ll fly right
through. I
don�t remember how
bad it is, but 1 in 5 seems reasonable.
So then, what happens on those "failed" runs on which you can get 9556
at
most? You get hit
forward by the stick and fly forward at high speed behind the roll. Now
just
stay on the carpet
and hold forward. If you�re lucky (happens often), you�ll have enough
speed
to actually
overtake the stick and get into the goal before it has fully unrolled.
I want the record!
Good luck. Hold forward, roll down immediately, go right and roll along
the
carpet. You don�t
need to do this as fast as you can, so no boosting or cutting corners
like a
madman. Try for
yourself how fast you have to do it. Anyway, roll along the very left
of the
carpet (this reduces
the chance of having these ugly bounces), pull over to the left
directly
before the first platform,
hit the edge of the platform and bounce up. If your timing is perfect
and if
you are very very lucky, the top of the stick will hit you as you
bounce
up and you will get hit into
the center of the roll (hopefully). If you are called FerretDruid, you
will
break the goal ribbon
nearly instantly. If you see you will make it into the roll (when
you�re
already like next to the
center of the roll), I suggest you pause, hold BACK-RIGHT, unpause and
pray.
There is a big
danger of going through the roll very fast. I got through the roll once
more
after my completed
run, and I could have made it Ferret-style if I had used this strat.
Current Record: 10610
Finish: 53.05
Bananas: 0
Difficulty rating for�
9550: 2/5
9800: 4/5
10000+: 5/5
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