ABZ Button Challenge
The ABZ Button Challenge, also known as the ABZ challenge, ABZBC, or ABZ for short, is a challenge in which the total sum of A, B, and Z button presses is minimized. For example, pressing the A button once is better than pressing B once and Z once or the B button twice, while pressing the Z button once is better than pressing the A button twice.
| ABZ Button Challenge | |||
| Abbreviation | ABZ | ||
| Individual stars collectible | 34 | ||
| Overall stars collectible | 0 | ||
| Is beatable | No | ||
| Presses required for Any% | 79 | ||
| Presses required for 120-Star | 614 | ||
| Star Details | |||
| BoB |
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| WF |
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| JRB |
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| CCM |
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| BBH |
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| HMC |
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| LLL |
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| SSL |
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| DDD |
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| SL |
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| WDW |
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| TTM |
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| THI |
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| TTC |
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| RR |
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| Secret |
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| Castle |
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| Bowser |
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The ABZ Button Challenge is unique in that it aims to minimize the sum of three values, rather than any of those values individually. For example, although it may be possible to obtain a star without pressing A, it is often the case that doing so requires many B presses; the converse holds as well. Thus, the way one approaches the ABZ Button Challenge is frequently very different from related challenges.
Textboxes constitute a majority of the ABZ presses in current routes. Advancing through text requires pressing either the A or the B button, meaning that minimizing A, B, and Z presses also leads to minimizing the amount of text presented in-game. In the European/PAL version, the game's language can be selected after each Save and Quit. Thus, in this version, one can change the game's language between English, German, and French without incurring any ABZ presses. Players use this mechanic in order to choose the language with the fewest textboxes at any given time.
The best version of the game in the current route is the PAL Wii VC version because of BitFS Platform Raising, which saves an A press in the any% run.
The project was conceptualized by Ethan White, with much of the current progress being made since early 2018. There are currently 2 spreadsheets for the ABZ challenge: the TAS spreadsheet[1] and the RTA spreadsheet[2]. The current amount of ABZ presses is not yet confirmed, as the initial routing for the challenge is not yet complete.
Non-Textbox ABZ Challenge
| Non-textbox ABZ Button Challenge | |||
| Abbreviation | Non-textbox ABZ | ||
| Individual stars collectible | 37 | ||
| Overall stars collectible | 0 | ||
| Is beatable | No | ||
| Presses required for Any% | ??? | ||
| Presses required for 120-Star | ??? | ||
| Star Details | |||
| BoB |
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| WF |
| ||
| JRB |
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| CCM |
| ||
| BBH |
| ||
| HMC |
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| LLL |
| ||
| SSL |
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| DDD |
| ||
| SL |
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| WDW |
| ||
| TTM |
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| THI |
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| TTC |
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| RR |
| ||
| Secret |
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| Castle |
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| Bowser |
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Since some consider the textbox minimization aspect of the ABZ challenge uninteresting, the Non-Textbox ABZ Button Challenge was created as an alternative challenge where A and B button presses do not count if they are used to advance text. Due to the lack of confirmation of how many ABZ presses are needed for the normal challenge, the number of ABZ presses needed for this challenge is not known either but should be significantly lower than normal.