SMS Tutorials

I love teaching and have been keen to pass down the work I’ve done to break down glass ceilings in a game with fairly feeble tutorial provision. Most of my work is targeted at making SMS Any% painless to learn and rearing future serious players, bringing them up on good movement fundamentals. Some is to encourage better strats among experienced players.

For beginners, the goal is to make skips and high-risk stages as safe as possible, so the most effort has gone into glitch setups, secret stages and Shadow Mario. Basic strats target beginners (and everyone else); competent strats target 1:17–1:23 Any% players.

• The tutorial series is lecture-style, each slowly-paced and covering many topics/strats in depth;
• The demo series is a concise reference of execution notes for a given strat;
• The strats guide discusses strat/tutorial/approach recommendations for each level.

When I made the tutorial and demo series in Dec 2022/Jan 2023, my mindset was to dump out my knowledge as quickly as possible. They’re both experimental, testing out different teaching styles, and were fairly low-effort to make. A solid step forward, with a lot to be improved if I ever revisit this.

Tutorial Series

SMS Tutorials (YouTube playlist)

These are 7 in-depth tutorials (recorded 2022/12) covering basic and competent strats. Their descriptions split them up into small sections. They are essentially lectures, recorded live and improvised in one take usually, so are long and conversational; giving the lecture again in future would help improve the flow and concision. They are intended for patient, diligent learners who intend to take speedrunning seriously.

In-depth tutorials (in bold font) and accompanying basic/competent strat demos (from the series in the next section, in normal font):

1. Gelato Beach Skip | basic | competent
2. Early Yoshi-Go-Round | basic | competent
3. Honey Skip | universal
4. Bianco 3 Secret | universal
5. Ricco 4 Secret | basic | competent
6. Bianco 6 Secret | basic | competent
7. Shadow Mario (all 9)

I think the GBS, B3S, B6S tutes are very good, HS, EYG and parts of SM are a bit waffly (but the strats are great, though the 3YG used is a little outdated), and R4S I’m still uncertain about the strats and approach to the level.

Demo Series

SMS Strat Demos (YouTube playlist)

These are 30 demonstrations of strats (recorded 2023/01), with accompanying live notes, that I wanted to have recorded – the first 10 are demos of the strats from the tutorial series, then there are basic strats for all secrets and some core movement levels, plus both basic and competent strats where I felt I’d innovated something useful or wanted to raise awareness of existing strats.

For each of these, check the description; I reviewed them in 2023/04 and made additions/corrections.

List of Strat Demos

1. gbs – basic
2. gbs – roof + tree throw
3. eyg – free 1stu 5yg
4. eyg – safe 1stu 3yg
5. honey skip
6. bianco 3s – standard
7. bianco 6s – basic
8. bianco 6s – standard
9. ricco 4s – 35 cycle
10. ricco 4s – 33 cycle
11. pinna 2s – standard
12. pinna 6s – basic
13. pinna 6s – otr
14. sirena 2s – basic
15. sirena 2s – sand sjds + ms
16. sirena 4s – basic
17. noki 6s – basic
18. noki 6s – safe green cycle
19. pianta 5s – basic
20. bianco 4 – basic
21. ricco 5 – sewer
22. pinna 3 – true boatless
23. sirena 6 – universal (pal/u)
24. noki 1 – basic
25. noki 1 – first cycle
26. noki 3 – universal
27. pianta 3 – basic
28. pianta 3 – standard
29. pianta 6 – universal
30. corona – slow corona

#29 Pianta 6 was recorded by FoundYourGun and annotated by me.

Strats Guide

Strats Guide

A page going through each Any% segment and recommending, linking and discussing basic and competent strats.

Older Wiki Work

Some older articles I wrote in early 2021.

Bianco 2 Entry
Extensive guide to Bianco 2 entry, including the spider flowchart and windmill cycles.

Ricco 4 Secret
A beginner/intermediate cycle for Ricco 4 Secret, with detailed execution notes.