”As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
Stop That Roach! is a Game Boy puzzle game developed by Koei. In this game, you help Ken & Lilly rid their house of a roach infestation. Probably wouldn’t happen if they didn’t leave all of their food on the floor, but I digress. Koei would later create the Dynasty Warriors series and have multiple subsidiaries worldwide before merging with Tecmo in 2009.
Objectives
- Fastest completion
- Emulator: BizHawk 2.11.0
Notes
As far as I know, there aren’t any difference between Ken & Lilly. Ken can be picked sooner so he’s chosen.
In each stage, you have a certain number of turns before the roaches start moving. If the roaches aren’t all defeated or captured after this, they escape and you lose the stage. Here’s what Ken and Lilly can do in their turns:
- Move - They can move up to five tiles before their turn ends.
- Slipper - Smack the space in front of them with a slipper. This kills any roach immediately in front of them, and produces a shockwave that will scare roaches away from it.
- Broom - Like the slipper, but you can select one of many squares instead of just the one in front of them.
- Spray - Sprays a T-shape in front of them, killing any roaches inside it.
- Jump - Makes a shockwave in place.
- Pass - Immediately ends all your turns and lets the roaches move.
Additionally, in some levels, you can place glue traps before any of your turns. Traps can hold up to three roaches, can be rotated, and may sometimes only accept entry from some sides (indicated by the arrows).
When the roaches have their turn, they will pathfind to the nearest food they see, while also avoiding Ken and Lilly. Traps are ignored in their pathfinding, so they’ll walk into them if they’re in their way.
It doesn’t seem like the puzzles in this game have multiple solutions. That being said, you can save time by reducing turns. It takes extra time for Ken and Lilly to turn while they’re moving. Make sure your path has as few turns as possible.
Before I end off the submission, I’d like to share some fun facts about cockroaches, since I think they get a bad rep:
- Out of about 4 500 species of cockroaches, only about 30 or so are actual pests, and only 10 of those are ones that appear in households.
- Cockroaches are social and will communicate information to their colony. They even have family bonds.
- Cockroaches have been around for 280 million years.
- Cockroaches are pollinators, making them important to the ecosystem.
- Cockroaches are often used for scientific research.
Hope you like these facts. Maybe the next time you see a roach, you’ll look at it with a sense of awe and admiration… just not in your house hopefully. - Walgrey
same energy btw
InputEvelution: Optimisation looks good! The cockroaches in this game look a little creepy to me, but the puzzle solutions were interesting. Accepting!
