Once upon a time, vgmrsepitome asked, "Which NES runs on SDA could be improved the most?"
and Mike Uyama responded with Little Nemo in one of the following posts.
He said that others thought the 30:50 run was too cautious in spots,
so then and there I decided that I would give it a shot.

But in the meantime I was heavy into running Super C.
Months I had spent shooting with nothing more than the pea.
When I finally finished, I dreaded attempting Nemo's probable 30 minute trial.
For my thumbs were sore and I wanted no more speedrunning for a while.

But then a week after Super C was done,
I already had the urge for another game to run.
But I wanted to play something short and slower-paced for my next job,
which ended up being a game called A Boy and His Blob.

Once that was finished, I thought I really ought
to play some of the new games I had recently bought.
And after spending a month playing nothing but these games,
I was finally ready to claim Nemo's record in my name.

I downloaded Ryan Kusnery's effort and found what they said is true:
30:50 is a time which could easily be improved.
And no offense to Ryan, but as I studied his creation,
I wondered how his run could've passed verification.

So I wisely studied Kyrsimys' TAS instead
and learned a few tricks to get really far ahead,
like how to avoid the cutscenes in Levels 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6,
although those in 2 and 6 I wasn't able to skip.

The TAS dodged the first cutscene by only jumping twice,
but I found jumping three times is easier and would just as well suffice.
And the rest of the level went as fast as I had hoped to achieve,
with about a 30-second difference already separating Ryan from me.

Notice how I didn't wait to jump up to the 2nd key
or how riding the lizard wastes time and not something you really need.
And even though that army ant hit me at the waterfall,
I would've saved only a half second if under him I had crawled.

Now in Level 2 I originally practiced the path shown in the TAS
but got tired of constantly waiting for the first bee to move his ass.
So I ended up just following Ryan's example,
but shaved off 12 seconds, which is definitely ample.

About my speed through the level, I shouldn't complain,
but there was one mistake I made, which I will now explain.
I lost 2 seconds trying to feed the last lizard
because some of the candies I threw didn't end up in his gizzard.

Since Level 3 is an autoscroller, let's skip to the next,
to the level of the game I think may be my very best.
I made an 8 second improvement by skipping the dialog,
along with another 24 by sticking with the frog.

Watch how I avoided the pufferfish's attack in the hidden cave
and got really close to the spikes without meeting an early grave.
And at the end of the level where I frequently falter,
I needed only one attempt to jump out of the water.

My good luck continued in typically troublesome Level 5,
where despite a few missteps I took another 31 seconds off of Ryan's time.
And I remembered to damage-boost twice on the floor with the last two keys
because only two health bars are needed when confronting the last monkey.

In Level 6 the TAS does something humanly impossible to achieve,
and that is flying up and over the spikes using the friendly bee.
Since that is out of the question, I had to do that lizard trick,
where falling through the floor saved many seconds, helping me finish quick.

But then, alas! 15 seconds of mistakes I made in the upside-down house,
including misusing the hammer while riding the mouse.
And into both frogs I missed my leap,
so a few extra moments each was able to sleep.

I also wasted three candies at the first bee,
and the monkey hit me away from the 6th key.
But that's not as bad as hitting the ceiling on my approach to that room,
or how the flight to the last key I had to resume.

When I finally got to Level 8 after the long cutscene,
my speedrunning skills I was fortunately able to redeem.
With my fight against the first boss I'm extremely pleased;
for I dealt the final blow on no more than landing number three.

Things were going great until the area with the moving ceiling,
where I wasted like 10 seconds in the water reeling.
But I refuse to declare any of my actions as causing a mistake
because it's the gator, not Nemo, that wouldn't cooperate.

Then came my battle against boss number two,
who spat flames only once before I bid him adieu.
The battle was speedy because I know he isn't random,
although he did almost kill me right before he succumbed.

Finally I reached the last part of Level 8, known as part 3,
where I missed that jump with the lizard twice before feeding the bee.
About my way through the rest of this section I really can't complain,
for a steady, speedy pace I was able to maintain.

Last came my fight against the Nightmare King.
I repeatedly made him feel my morning star's sting.
And the battle, which I had thought was pretty fast
can't compare to Ryan's victory before the king's 7th laser blast.

So we've reached the end of my Little Nemo fairy tale.
To make a run of the game that's hard to improve, I hope I didn't fail.
But if any of you later wish my run to amend,
then I wish you the best of luck. Um ... the end.