Speedrunners rejoice, Marsupilami: Hoobadventure has a time trial mode that practically begs for world records.

Hoobadventure has 35 watches (21 stages, 6 dojos, 3 boss chases, and 5 secret levels) to collect that require you to beat a specific time in a level to earn. There's three different colors awarded based on your final time: bronze, silver, and gold. The "King of Palombia" achievement will trigger when you get every watch regardless of color, but if you want the coveted "Olympic Champion" achievement as well you'll have to collect every gold watch.

But I don't think that'll stop you from wanting to get the best possible times, will it?

The tail roll (tapping the Whip/Roll button while holding left or right) is essential to every time trial. In fact, most of the game's stages are designed to be rolled through or at least have one or two sections designed for rolling.

Much like in Donkey Kong Country, your Marsu of choice can roll off a ledge and jump to get some extra distance, not to mention giving you a small speed boost in the air.




The biggest obstacle that you'll be facing are rings that your character will latch onto to avoid pits and obstacles. The trick here is that a Marsupilami's tail is long enough to where you can be a good distance away and still be able to latch on to a ring.

There are two caveats to this: first, the auto-aim will occasionally latch on to rings you didn't intend to use, often when you need to jump and continue rolling while a few rings hover above you. Second, and most importantly, you have to watch the angle between your Marsu and the ring. It's not important early on, but the last few levels will require you to aim correctly, lest you get hit by a bat. And speaking of getting hit...




Regardless of what difficulty you choose, time trial starts you off with three hit points. For the most part, you can get through most time trials without taking any damage, but once in a while it's better to just bump into a hazard or two for a damage boost than to waste time avoiding them.

You have infinite lives in this mode, but if you die you'll lose precious seconds getting reset back to the last checkpoint you crossed. Thankfully there's plenty of crates and pots scattered throughout that can quickly be broken open to restore your health; in some cases you'll actually need to break these open to pass through a tunnel!

If all else fails, you can restart the level as many times as you need (or until your patience runs out).

This is the best place to start practicing everything I mentioned in the first section, being the first level and everything, but in general you'll notice that fruits don't add to your life counter and the usual goodies like feathers, bonus rounds, and extra lives are all missing. Focus on the level itself, roll-jump over gaps, and don't get distracted when the camera pauses on an area that usually offers a small fruit challenge.

Another easy level. For the most part, you can stick to the lower path and roll your way through without much difficulty.


There's two tricks you'll learn here that'll help you a lot later on: first, you can use the drill stomp to quickly fall down large chasms, which'll save you time in the section pictured above. Second, some stages will require you to work a little extra bit to get to the big fruit at the end, like jumping on some rotating platforms or riding a zipline, which can sometimes choke you up if you're not paying attention.

The aim of each dojo is to clear the maze of rings before time runs out. Since the ring order doesn't change between time trial and adventure, it's easy to plan out your route after beating the challenge once or twice. You also don't have to pass through the rings, you can hit the sides and still have it count.

Treacherous Climb introduces more than a few elements that will absolutely kill your run in later levels.


The first of these are the red rings that jump you straight up and disappear for a brief moment. The first part can misguide you off-course or into a hazard; the second part will cost you time if you miss a jump and have to wait for it to respawn.


The other big hazard you'll learn about are the toucans, which operate like the barrel cannons from Donkey Kong Country. It's imperative that you learn their patterns so you don't waste time waiting for an opportunity to fire.


Finally, when you get to the stretch near the end with the bouncy fungus, perform a roll-jump before you land on the fungus to build up speed. Use short hops to move faster horizontally and hold the jump button for when you need to vault over a hazard or climb a vertical shaft.

The first secret level in the game starts off with a shortcut: save time by moving to your left immediately and stomp your way down. In general, a small jump before you stomp can save you a few milliseconds instead of stomping at the top of your full jump.


Additionally, you can cancel out of a stomp after breaking through a trapdoor by pressing jump just as you pass through the bottom. This'll help you out near the end so you don't end up falling down the wrong mineshaft.

This dojo isn't much of a challenge. Just tap the jump button repeatedly to wallclimb faster and let gravity be your guide, and you should be able to clear it well above gold time.

One useful tactic to note is that you can keep your roll going off small ledges, and even off higher ledges you still can get a speed boost by jumping just before you fall off.


For this level and a few others later on, you can use a one-sided wall jump to get up to higher platforms instead of taking the normal route as a quick shortcut.

Don't bother waiting for the platforms to wheel around; jump as soon as you get the opportunity and roll-jump for that extra distance.


For the final stretch, aim for the rings farthest from you so you can quickly jump off them to the next rings.

All three boss chases are autoscrolling levels, so the challenge is less about making it to the end as it is to speed up the scrolling as much as you can. You'll also want to be extra careful about this, however, as these levels have less checkpoints and less piranhas to restore your health.


The only real advice I can give here is just to keep moving, and jump for the ziplines as you as you get an opening.

For the bouncing blue-and-yellow jelly, the best way to move over large patches is to use short hops and only hold down the jump button if you need to reach a higher platform.


The last section near the end will make or break your run, since you'll have to zigzag across a narrow corridor full of the stuff and avoid being bounced back.

Given that you've already had some practice in the previous levels with bouncy jelly, this dojo should be easy to maneuver through. Again, use short hops for horizontal speed and high jumps for vertical.

Another straightforward level, this level is all about practicing your ring targeting. The vines swing in a fairly basic pattern, so it should be easy to time your jumps so you can latch on just as they're moving away from you. Otherwise, there isn't much here you haven't seen already.

This is a good level to practice damage boosts, especially when you're going through the last gauntlet of big and small chestnuts. The thwomps won't pose much of a threat unless you're deliberately stopping under them.


The only section that you'll have to wait through is the giant chestnut at the end, because even if you make it to the end it'll take a few seconds to catch up.

This exact same bonus layout gets repeated more than a few times during your normal playthrough, so you should have plenty of practice navigating through here. Remember, you can cancel out of a stomp by pressing the jump button after breaking through a trapdoor.

This stage has the longest gold watch time in the entire game, mostly because you'll have to spend most of your time floating on a giant turtle... except not really, because you can use roll-jumps to skip well ahead of the turtle. You'll have to be careful not to overshoot your landing, since there's plenty of small platforms.

If you do have to ride the turtle, however, the best place to stand is on its nose, since the thwomps won't hit you - they'll graze your tail, but that doesn't have a hitbox so you'll be alright.


In fact, the only time you'll really be required to wait is when you're riding the final turtle. Even then, the obstacles on that section are easy enough to dodge that you can quickly hop off and rush towards the giant fruit before you know it.

This is the level that'll make or break your future time trials. If you can't get the gold time here, go back and practice in the previous stages because it's only gonna get harder from here on out.

For the first part, just roll off the edge instead of taking the zipline down. Otherwise, this stage boils down to timing and reflexes.

Of all the time trials, this one is one of the most annoying since you'll be spending a good chunk of time hoping to aim true and not get blown off-stage. I actually found a glitch here where if you reset while inside a toucan, you'll hear its wings flapping nonstop until you reach it again.


Ultimately, the best advice would be to memorize the pattern of the birds and the bats so that you can predict when to fire and where the fastest path will lead you.

This stage is slightly harder than High Speed Line, but it's mitigated by your biggest challenge being the platforming, not waiting for ziplines to pass by. Once again, your best times here will be determined by how fast you can make the stage scroll, but make sure you have at least two hearts on you just in case.

This level is shrouded almost entirely in darkness, so I suggest doing a few practice runs to memorize where everything is. If it weren't for that, this wouldn't be too bad of a level aside from the final stretch with the giant fireball.


The most difficult part, and the one that'll warrant more than a few restarts, will be in the middle after the third checkpoint where you'll have to navigate the small moving platforms over a dark bottomless pit while avoiding fireballs. Take a drink for every platforming game cliche in that sentence.

This challenge stage is filled with red rings, so make sure you've got a grasp of auto-aim so that you can minimize the time spent jumping around. In some instances, you'll have an easier time just falling instead of keeping yourself in the air. It's almost zen-like...

Don't be intimidated here: the crushers that pop out of the wall are easy to predict. In fact, you can actually rush and roll-jump through a good amount of the stage thanks to how flat and square the terrain is. Outside of one or two sections where you'll have to wait on rings and one chamber with a thwomp, I found it was probably the easiest out of all the final world's levels.


Just as a word of caution, though: this is where the game starts getting cruel with the red rings. If you're too hasty in latching on you'll be force to juggle yourself and waste time before the passage opens up, or worse, fall into the void and kill your run.

The last dojo is only hard because it forces you to wait around and ride the zipline. While you can certainly drop off and break the rings that spawn on the lower half of the stage, you'll still be forced to wait to grab the ones on the upper half.

Remember how I said at the start of this guide that the rings have "two edges to this sword"? This is what I was referring to.

You will absolutely need to perfect your ring aiming here, or else you'll find yourself taking damage and falling into pits, especially since by the end you'll be juggling yourself between totems and avoiding bats. Mercifully, you won't have to rush too fast through the final gauntlet at the end.

I'm not even going to bother giving any advice here. This level is brutal.

Where to start with this level...


Rushing through this level to speed up the scrolling is not advisable here unless you want to take a shuriken to the face. In fact, after you pass the second checkpoint the screen will be flooded with enough projectiles to give a shmup fan flashbacks.


Most importantly, to get the gold time here you absolutely cannot die. There's so few health pickups in this stage that unless you're right at the end, it's essential that you don't screw up at any point. Even one lost hit point could make or break your run.

The Hidden World won't be that much difficult than the original campaign if you've gotten enough practice (and at this point, you probably should have most if not all of the gold watches - doubly so if your save file got accidentally erased and you had to redo all the time trials), but this time around there's going to be some new gimmicks.



The first one you'll immediately encounter are the embedded rings that temporarily pop out of the ground when you stomp on them. These aren't nearly as tricky to maneuver across as the red rings, but they disappear back into the earth after a few seconds so you'll need to be quick on your feet.

If you need practice after coming back to this game, there's plenty of flatland to practice your tail roll.

Just remember that the green pterodactyls shoot straight down in batches of three, while the red ones spit a homing fireball. Once again this level shouldn't be too hard if you've had practice before, but keep in mind there'll be one or two instances where you'll have to wait for the homing fireball to break the fossil blocks before you can proceed.

The flying rings come into play here, but you can just stomp your way down the gorges and avoid having to waste time.



If you need practice on damage boosting, there's plenty of opportunities here as well; the spitting cacti and ankylosaurs have predictable patterns that can be dodged consistently.

Don't let the name fool you - this level is hardly a maze. Take to the upper paths in the first cave, and when you get to the long ascent midway through, wall jump up the middle chasm and use the ring on the right. Once you get past those parts, the level should be as straightforward as any of the previous secret levels.

The combination of flying rings and wind currents can be deceptive. Some parts can be navigated faster by dropping off the ring early and just rolling on the ground, while other parts are easier to get through by holding on to your ring as much as you can.



I found that in some cases it's easier to just wait a bit for the drafts to resume rather than risk flying on fumes. Again, there's no one definite strategy to this level.

Much like Raft Peril, you'll be finding yourself riding on giant behemoths to get through the level; mercifully, they're nowhere near as slow, so you can easily take long jumps off them faster.



Unlike the last few levels there aren't any vertical sections until the very end, so you can quickly breeze through this if you don't bother waiting.

The only time trial challenge in the game that doesn't involve collecting watches can be found here; finish with a time under 2:10 to get the "Faster Than Light" achievement.

There is no shortcut; just keep rolling and only stop if you absolutely need some health.

This level is a pain in the ass for making you speed through pterodactyl fireballs over breakable fossil blocks. If you're not waiting for a homing fireball to break some blocks for you, you're rushing across small platforms guarded by RNG-fueled lizard birds.



Thankfully once you get past the long stretch of bouncy jelly in the second third, the level itself gets slightly easier. Slightly, since by the time you reach it you've probably had to reset your run a few times.

Q: Can I damage boost over the wastewater that looks like Gushin' Granny Mountain Dew?
A: Yes and no. You can get a pretty good jump out of the swamp if you accidentally fall in, but it doesn't boost you horizontally and it's easier to just clear the obstacles normally. I suggest using it when you need to immediately get on a platform or get within grabbing range of a ring.



The spinosaur chases in this level won't give you much of a hard time since you're probably good enough by now to be rushing through them, but the final rush at the end is a real chokepoint since the camera tends to overshoot upwards just a bit.

Throughout my walkthrough and most of my playthrough of this game, I've been using Hope (the girl Marsupilami) as you probably noticed in all my screenshots. However, for this level I used Twister because his blue merle coloring makes him easier to see against the lava backdrops, and if you're playing on a Steam Deck (or a smaller screen) this is a remarkable difference. If you're going for the cataclysm medals as well, he's the go-to character.



For being the last level of the world, it's not quite as hard as, say, Hide & Spike, because here you're expected to rush through most of the stage, and unless you're masochistic enough to try for the "Floor Is Lava" achievement during all this, you can afford to take a hit or two and still have enough of a chance to survive.

If you've managed to come this far and get all 35 gold watches, then I offer my deepest congratulations and I thank you for using this guide to help you accomplish that goal. I can't guarantee that my personal bests are the most optimal, but at the very least they should provide a glimpse of the record times you can achieve in this game.