TAS: F-Zero X Sector Alpha in 57.230 (NTSC) by Lord Tom

Tool-assisted speed-run (TAS) of Sector Alpha, from F-Zero X.
See tasvideos.org for more information on Tool-Assisted Speed-runs.

Getting a good DTD is obviously huge for this track, but especially on the first lap there's a lot of time gained by choosing specific driving paths to better maintain speed. The DTD on lap 3 is faster than the first 2; it's very sensitive to tiny changes in angles so more than anything it was just luck stumbling onto a great solution the 3rd time around. I got best results holding holding all the way down-left on liftoff, then when the view shifts holding up and slightly left (15).

About half of the time saved was by stealing an extra boost going into lap 3. This was done by a combination of taking the longest possible path through the left refiller in lap 2 and not hitting the wall on the 2nd DTD. This saved not-quite a full boost; a trivial amount of time was lost as I run out of energy just before the final boost in lap 3.

Though I used Crazy Bear to get more rail-slide at the start, now that I'm done I suspect for a TAS the Blood Hawk could probably be faster. For real-time speed-running, Crazy Bear offers better protection against hitting the wall on the DTD, but for a TAS the difference is only for the first rail-slide. Blood Hawk could take the same damage and still get back to full energy by spending another 0.2s in the refiller; I'd say there's a decent shot you could make that up with the Blood Hawk's faster turning and better boost.

TAS'ing this track I learned some useful subtleties of the game. For instance, there's a lot of granularity and range in how sharp a DT-turn can be. To lose the least possible speed, you want to not turn until the same frame the DT activates. Once the DT is active, you can turn more sharply by adding more taps during the DT itself - though you lose a bit more speed. If you need to turn even more sharply, you can start a slide just as you're doing the DT - you lose more speed but e.g. in the final turn into the refillers on both boostlaps it turns out to be faster than doing 2 non-sliding DT's (especially on lap 3 where I'd be boosting during both DT's).

Enjoy!