Movement
Contents
General Information
- Tonguing walls is the fastest way to stop and turn around. When there is no wall available, holding down on the dpad briefly is the next fastest way to come to a complete stop to turn around.
- Running off of a ledge causes Yoshi to fall at max speed, thus, the quickest way to fall down from an area is not to jump like in other games, but to simply run off of the ledge.
- Jumping off of slopes as Super Baby Mario gives you a speed boost. Also, facing the opposite direction you want to move, when jumping into a Mario star, gives you a speed boost (if you want to go left, face right as you jump into the star).
- The quickest way to move up stairs is to walk along them for a split second and then jump. Jumping too quickly results in Yoshi losing a significant amount of speed.
- Jumping on snow and ice is the fastest way to accelerate to full speed. If you run on ice while at full speed, you'll run slightly faster than normal, whereas snow always slows you down.
- Swallowing enemies or tonguing while fluttering should be done as soon as the leg kicking animation starts to avoid any slowdown. The end of the flutter provides acceleration, which tonguing and making eggs would cancel out.
- Ground pounding while travelling up towards doors will save time if you get a quick door entry. This is because you're entering the door during the ground pound animation. This is known as the Sex Stomp.
- Entering the bottom of the goal ring saves a small amount of time over hitting the middle or top of the ring. This is due to Baby Mario being caught by the next yoshi sooner. The difference between the very bottom and the peak height of a jump is 10 frames.[1]
Avoiding Slopes
- Avoiding slopes is one of the keys to having good movement in this game. Just about every slope is slower to run across than flat terrain. For this reason, it is very often preferable to jump over slopes than to walk across them. The only exception to this rule is speed oscillation.
- If a slope is unavoidable, the slowdown can often be minimized by jumping off of the slope as soon as possible and in the case of a perfect jump the slope won't even slow Yoshi down at all.
Perfect Jump
- Perfect jumps are performed by jumping on the first possible frame as Yoshi lands on the ground. These jumps produce several interesting effects, most notably, the game does not register Yoshi as having landed on the ground. This is often used in conjunction with an extended flutter. Whenever Yoshi bounces on an enemy, he gets a much longer and higher flutter that can be used to reach high areas. However, the flutter must be initiated before landing on the ground or else it is canceled. (i.e. you must use an extended flutter immediately after bouncing on an enemy). This cancellation can be avoided by using a perfect jump, as the game never registers Yoshi as having touched the ground. This is seen in the 1-2 skip, which the video on the right demonstrates.
- First, it is shown that simply bouncing on a shyguy does not give enough height to reach the cliff. Second, a shyguy bounce, followed by a failed perfect jump fails to give an extended flutter. Finally, the perfect jump is executed, granting an extended flutter, even after jumping off of the post, giving enough height to reach the cliff and complete the level.
- A perfect jump can be used to skip an autoscroller in 6-5 (Any%_6-5). The basic premise of this skip is that a perfect jump won't allow the screen to scroll up because the game doesn't register Yoshi as having touched the ground.
- You can also use the help box in 1-1 100% to reach the top area via perfect jump and an extended flutter from the shy guy. [2]
Tonguing
- Using Yoshi's tongue normally slows Yoshi down. This can be avoided by only tonguing while in the air and releasing the dpad after initiating the tongue. You can resume directional inputs after Yoshi's tongue is almost fully retracted back into his mouth.
- The exception to this is when you're on the ground and you only tongue for 1 frame. (i.e. just before you would run into an enemy).
- Continuing to hold forward while tonguing reduces Yoshi's speed by half.
- Holding Y longer makes Yoshi's tongue longer.
Regarding the video:
The first 4 tongues are done while holding forward the entire time.
The rest of the level demonstrates tonguing while releasing the dpad.
Making Eggs
- If Yoshi swallows an enemy on the ground, his speed immediately drops to zero. Therefore, all eggs should be made in the air, whenever possible.
- As with tonguing, holding any direction on the dpad while the egg-making animation is playing, causes Yoshi to slow down to half speed.
- The optimal way to make eggs is to:
1) Tongue an enemy. 2) While traveling at max speed, jump 3) As quickly as possible after jumping, remove your thumb from forward, and tap down for as little time as possible 4) Continue holding jump such that you do not land until the egg swallowing animation is finished (you should not be pushing any directional buttons at all). 5) Return thumb to pushing down forward when the egg animation ends.
Regarding the video:
The first egg is eaten on the ground resulting in a complete stop.
Then, 4 eggs are eaten while holding forward. As can be seen, Yoshi's speed is drastically reduced.
Finally, the last 3 eggs are eaten using the method described above, where the dpad is released during the swallowing animation. Full speed is retained using this method.
Ground Pound
A Groundpound causes Yoshi to fall 2 times faster than normal, however starting the groundpound takes 23 frames. Landing animation takes 7 frames. If you have to groundpound anyways, just try to do it as soon as possible to save time. Groundpounding into pipes/teleporters/doors can skip the landing animation. So basically you have to fall (regular freefall) over 42 frames or ~168 pixels for it to actually save time. Groundpounding clears all velocity, acceleration when landing is not included in this calculation.
Speed Oscillation
It is possible to gain a very slightly higher than usual running speed. The common way to achieve this is by jumping off of a slope. This can be used to skip certain bonus games for 100%, such as is done in 1-3.
Important Note: There is a 1 in 3 chance of losing your higher speed when jumping!
For Any% this means that it is prefered to stay grounded if possible, mostly whenever you are running along a long area of flat ground, since slopes would slow you down and are prefered to be jumped over at all times. It is not worth jumping off of a slope to get a higher speed when the slope could be avoided completely, since the time lost by touching the slope will be greater than the time gained by the higher speed, so this is only useful whenever landing a slope is unavoidable, like at the end of 2-2.
